A Modified Multipath Model for Backscattering Prediction of Objects Above Rough Surfaces

The four-path based multipath model is widely adopted to consider the multipath backscattering phenomenology for objects above rough surfaces, where the reflection coefficient conventionally focuses on the coherent components. In this paper, a modified multipath model with refined rough surface reflection coefficient is proposed for more exact backscattering prediction of an object above rough surface. The concept of Fresnel zone is introduced to determine the range of the surface area primarily contributing to the reflected field received by the obj ect. The roughness of underlying surface within the primary scattering area instead of the entire one is thereby calculated and utilized in the derivation of the refined coefficient calculation formulation. Numerical results are presented to validate the usefulness of the proposed method.