Effects of backscattering enhancement considering multiple scattering in rain on MMW radar performance

Abstract

The theory of the second order backscattering enhancement in discrete random medium is discussed in this paper. The effects of rainfall on millimeter wave (MMW) radar performance are analysed based on Mie theory, Monte Carlo (MC) simulation and backscattering enhancement theory, at 35 and 95 GHz, respectively. The rain attenuation considering the raindrops multiple scattering is introduced into the estimation of the signal to clutter ratios (S/C) and the clutter to noise ratios (C/N) for MMW radar. The S/C and C/N are calculated by means of the backscattering enhancement, Mie theory and MC simulation method, respectively under the condition of rain environment. The results show that the S/C obtained by backscattering enhancement theory is smaller than the results by Mie and MC. The C/N by backscattering enhancement is greater than the results by other. The Mie and MC methods do not consider backscatter enhancement, underestimate the effect of raindrops scattering on radar performance. Hence, it is shown that the attenuation and backscattering enhancement induced by raindrops multiple scattering are necessarily taken into account for the performance estimation of MMW radar operating in heavy rainfall environment.