In this paper, an electromagnetic plane wave diffraction by finite number of loaded thick slits on infinitely long perfectly electric conductor (PEC) screen is analyzed. Here we formulate the problem by utilizing the Kobayashi Potential (KP) method, which is a kind of eigenfunction expansion method in terns of Weber-Schafheitlin discontinuous integrals. The multiple scattering contributions between the slits are analytically included in the formulation. The solution derived here may provide us with precise numerical result, so it may be considered as a reference solution to other numerical and approximate analyses.

SAR tomography is one of the methods that can perform 3-dimensional (3-D) imaging with multiple SAR datasets by using the Direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation technique to estimate the height distribution of scatterers. Several reports on SAR tomography have been issued. However, experimental results of the SAR tomography by the Pi-SAR2-X, Japanese airborne SAR operated by the NICT, have not been reported yet. This paper is the first to report the results of experiments on the Japanese SAR platform. High-resolution 2-dimensional image can be obtained by the X-band SAR. However the image is generated by projecting 3-D objects in to a 2-D image plane, hence the target responses having the same slant-range distance locate at the same image pixel. This is well known as the layover problem. When we employ the X-band SAR tomography, we can obtain 3-D high-resolution images without the layover and also foreshortening problem. It will be useful for disaster damage monitoring, especially in urban areas. The main difficulty of the SAR tomography comes from the phase error caused by inaccurate flight-path data. In many cases, the dataset are preprocessed and compensated so as to parallelize their flight-path to carry out the phase calibration and the DOA estimation easily. However, it is often difficult for common users to obtain such preprocessed datasets. In this paper, we propose a simple calibration method by using a flat-surface area with known altitude. Experiments show that the proposed method is effective for the Pi-SAR2-X standard products without parallelized preprocessing or precise flight-path information.

An electromagnetic wave scattering by a material loaded rectangular trough on a ground plane is approximately analyzed by using standard impedance boundary condition (SIBC). The validity of the derived approximate solution is examined by comparing with the rigorous one not only for the oblique incidence but also for the variation of both the filled material's parameters and the trough dimension. An applicability condition has been derived here for this trough structure.

Diffraction field by a wide and thick slit on a conducting screen has been analyzed. High frequency ray-mode coupling analysis has been utilized, and the total diffracted or radiated field in each region is considered as a summation of successive modal radiation contribution due to the original modal excitation by the incident plane wave. Our derived results are compared with those obtained by other solutions, and good agreement has been observed, and the validity of our formulation is confirmed.

This paper presents an easy and efficient modification of simplified 2D ray-launching method, by approximately including multiple reflection effect inside walls for indoor environment. In order to precisely carry out the ray-launching procedure inside lossy wall, a simple modification using a true real refraction angle is first introduced, instead of complex one. Furthermore, an efficient approximation is carried out to collect the internal multiple reflected rays into the primary one. We here call it collective ray approach. Consequently, it is confirmed from the detailed considerations that the present ray representations obtained by introducing the real refraction angle are well suitable for indoor propagation analysis, and in particular the collective ray solution can be utilized confidently even when the internal reflections strongly contribute to the propagation feature of the considered indoor environment.

Electromagnetic plane wave scattering by a loaded trough on a ground plane has been analyzed by Kobayashi and Nomura's method. The field in each region is expressed first in terms of appropriate eigen functions, whose excitation coefficients are determined by the continuity condition across the aperture of the trough. Simple far field expression which is suitable for numerical calculation for small aperture cases has been derived. Scattering far field patterns and radar cross section are calculated and compared with those obtained by other methods. Good agreements have been observed for all incident angles.

This paper presents an efficient ray-launching method for 2D indoor propagation problem, by including crucial multiple reflection effect inside wall. We here focus on the derivation of the reflected and transmitted ray solutions at/through wall when a magnetic source is located in the indoor environment. An efficient approximation, which is called collective ray approximation, is carried out to bundle or collect the internal multiple reflected rays into the primary one. It is resultantly confirmed from the detailed numerical experiments that the derived collective ray solutions can be confidently effective when the internal reflections strongly contribute to the propagation characteristic in the propagation environment, regardless of angle of the incidence.

This paper examines seasonal change of the true water area of Lake "Sakata" by using Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (POLSAR) image analysis. The true water area includes not only the body of water but also the water area under emerged-plants and/or floating-leave plants in the lake. Statistical POLSAR image analysis is carried out for both X- and L-band data, based on the three-component scattering power decomposition method, where the decomposed components are surface scattering, double-bounce scattering and volume scattering components. From the results of the image analysis for the L-band POLSAR data acquired by Pi-SAR system, it is found that strong double-bounce scattering can be observed at the vicinity of the boundary region between water area and the surrounding emerged-plants area in early and middle summer. This phenomenon is an important factor for environmental monitoring. To verify the generating mechanism of the double-bounce scattering, the Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) polarimetric scattering analysis is also executed for a simplified boundary model, which simulates the local boundary region around the lake and consists of lots of vertical thin dielectric pillars on a perfect electric conductor (PEC) plate or on a PEC and dielectric hybrid plate. Taking into account the polarimetric feature of the double-bounce scattering obtained by both the FDTD and POLSAR image analyses, one can distinguish the actual water area from the bush of the emerged-plants around the lake, even when the water area is concealed by emerged-plants and/or floating-leave plants. Consequently, it is found that by using the proposed approach, one can estimate the true water area seasonal change for the lake and the surrounding wetland.

In this paper, we propose a simple algorithm for detecting a vehicle trapped in flooded urban area by using quad-polarimetric SAR data. The four-component scattering power decomposition and phase difference of HH-VV co-pol ratio are effectively used in the proposed algorithm. Here we carry out polarimetric scattering measurement for a scaled vehicle model surrounded by two buildings model in an anechoic chamber, to acquire the quad-polarimetric SAR data. It is confirmed from the results of the image analysis for the measured SAR data that the proposed algorithm for vehicle detection works well even under severe environment where the vehicle is set in the shadow of the building and/or the alignment of the vehicle or the buildings is obliquely oriented to direction of the radar line of sight.

A simple extension to treat evanescent modal excitation at the aperture of a parallel plane waveguide is shown here by GTD diffracted rays with complex propagation angles. Numerical comparison with other solution confirmed that our simple solution can be used for modal excitation estimation below the cut-off frequency.

Soil moisture retrieval from polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery over forested terrain is quite a challenging problem, because the radar backscatter is affected by not only the moisture content, but also by large vegetation structures such as the trunks and branches. Although a large number of algorithms which exploit radar backscatter to infer soil moisture have been developed, most of them are limited to the case of bare soil or little vegetation cover that an incident wave can easily reach the soil surface without serious disturbance. However, natural land surfaces are rarely free from vegetation, and the disturbance in radar backscatter must be properly compensated to achieve accurate soil moisture measurement in a diversity of terrain surfaces. In this paper, a simple polarimetric parameter, co-polarized backscattering ratio, is shown to be a criterion to infer moisture content of forested terrain, from both a theoretical forest scattering simulation and an appropriate experimental validation under well-controlled condition. Though modeling of forested terrain requires a number of scattering mechanisms to be taken into account, it is essential to isolate them one by one to better understand how soil moisture affects a specific and principal scattering component. For this purpose, we consider a simplified microwave scattering model for forested terrain, which consists of a cloud of dielectric cylinders as a representative of trunks, vertically stood on a flat dielectric soil surface. This simplified model can be considered a simple boreal forest model, and it is revealed that the co-polarization ratio in the ground-trunk double-bounce backscattering can be an useful index to monitor the relative variation in the moisture content of the boreal forest.

This paper examines polarimetric scattering characteristics caused by a dihedral corner reflector of finite size. The dihedral corner reflector is a basic model of double-bounce structure in urban area. The detailed scattering information serves the interpretation of Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (POLSAR) data analysis. The Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method is utilized for the scattering calculation because of its simplicity and flexibility in the target shape modeling. This paper points out that there exists a stable double-bounce squint angle region both for perfect electric conductor (PEC) and dielectric corner reflectors. Beyond this stable squint angular region, the scattering characteristics become completely different from the assumed response. A criterion on the double-bounce scattering is proposed based on the physical optics (PO) approximation. The detailed analyses on the polarimetric index (co-polarization ratio) with respect to squint angle and an experimental result measured in an anechoic chamber are shown.

In this brief paper, we examine polarimetric scattering characteristics for understanding seasonal change of paddy rice growth by using quad-polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data in the X-band. Here we carry out polarimetric scattering measurement for a simplified paddy rice model in an anechoic chamber at X-band frequency to acquire the the quad polarimetric SAR data from the model. The measurements are performed several times for each growth stage of the paddy rice corresponding to seasonal change. The model-based scattering power decomposition is used for the examination of polarimetric features of the paddy rice model. It is found from the result of the polarimetric SAR image analysis for the measurement data that the growth state of the paddy rice in each stage can be understood by considering the ratio of the decomposition powers, when the planting direction of the paddy rice is not only normal but also oblique to radar direction. We can also see that orientation angle compensation (OAC) is useful for improving the accuracy of the growth stage observation in late vegetative stage for oblique planting case.