Polarimetric emission of rain events: simulation and experimental results at X-Band

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Document typeArticle
Defense date2009-06
Rights accessOpen Access
Abstract
Accurate models are used today for infrared and microwave satellite radiance simulations of the first two Stokes elements in the physical retrieval, data assimilation etc. of surface and atmospheric parameters. Although in the past a number of theoretical and experimental works have studied the polarimetric emission of some natural surfaces, specially the sea surface roughened by the wind (Windsat mission), very limited studies
have been conducted on the polarimetric emission of rain cells or other natural surfaces. In this work, the polarimetric emission (four Stokes elements) of a rain cell is computed using the polarimetric radiative transfer equation assuming that raindrops are described by
Pruppacher-Pitter shapes and that their size distribution follows the Laws-Parsons law. The Boundary Element Method (BEM) is used to compute the exact bistatic scattering
coefficients for each raindrop shape and different canting angles. Numerical results are compared to the Rayleigh or Mie scattering coefficients, and to Oguchi’s ones, showing that above 1-2 mm raindrop size the exact formulation is required to model properly the
scattering. Simulation results using BEM are then compared to the experimental data
gathered with a X-band polarimetric radiometer. It is found that the depolarization of the radiation caused by the scattering of non-spherical raindrops induces a non-zero third Stokes parameter, and the differential phase of the scattering coefficients induces a non-zero fourth Stokes parameter.
CitationDuffo, N. [et al.]. Polarimetric emission of rain events: simulation and experimental results at X-Band. "Remote Sensing", Juny 2009, vol. 1, p. 107-121.
ISSN2072-4292
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