GENERAL PHYSICS: Nuclear, Atomic, and Molecular (PACS 01-361 2315 Depolarization effects in the active remote sensing of random media

Backscattering cross sections for depolarization are derived for the active remote sensing of a two‐layer random medium. It is shown that the depolarization effects arise as a second‐order term in albedo under the Born approximation. The results of the backscattering cross sections are illustrated as functions of frequency and incident angles and used to match experimental data collected from a vegetation field.