Multiple scattering of electromagnetic waves by random distributions of discrete scatterers with coherent potential and quantum mechanical formalism

Abstract

An experimental observed fact in scattering of electromagnetic waves by dense distribution of discrete scatterers is that the assumption of independent scattering leads to overestimation of scattering effects. To account for this phenomenon in the present paper, the method of coherent potential is applied to the study of multiple scattering of electromagnetic waves by random distribution of discrete scatterers. Comparisons are made with results obtained by using the effective field approximation and the quasicrystalline approximation. Numerical results of the effective dielectric constant and the scattering attenuation rates, as a function of the fractional volume occupied by the scatterers, are illustrated using parameters frequently encountered in the microwave remote sensing of snow and soil moisture. It is shown that the coherent potential method as applied to quasicrystalline approximation is superior to the other approximations in accounting for the overestimation factor.