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IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation
Volume 47 Number 2, February 1999

Table of Contents for this issue

Complete paper in PDF format

Gaussian Rough Surfaces and Kirchhoff Approximation

Antonio Collaro, Giorgio Franceschetti, Fellow, IEEE, Maurizio Migliaccio, Member, IEEE, and Daniele Riccio, Member, IEEE

Page 392.

Abstract:

Electromagnetic scattering is often solved by applying Kirchhoff approximation to the Stratton-Chu scattering integral. In the case of rough surfaces, it is usually assumed that this is possible if the incident electromagnetic wavelength is small compared to the mean radius of curvature of the surface. Accordingly, evaluation of the latter is an important issue. This paper generalizes the groundwork of Papa and Lennon [1] by computing the mean radius of curvature for Gaussian rough surfaces with no restriction on its correlation function. This is an interesting extension relevant to a variety of natural surfaces. Relations between the surface parameters and the mean radius of curvature are determined and particular attention is paid to the relevant small slope regime.

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