A New Electromagnetic Theory for Scattering from Shallow Rough Surfaces

Abstract

A new approximate theory for scattering from arbitrary rough surfaces is presented. It is shown that this theory gives the exact result, to the first order, when the depth of the asperities tends to zero. On the other hand, we prove that this is not the case for formulae relying upon the Kirchhoff approximation, even in cases for which many authors have claimed their validity. Many applications can be envisaged, in particular to direct or inverse scattering from random rough surfaces.