Bidirectional Analytic Ray Tracing for Fast Computation of Composite Scattering From Electric-Large Target Over a Randomly Rough Surface

Abstract

The bidirectional analytic ray tracing (BART) method is developed to rapidly calculate composite scattering from three-dimensional (3D) electrically large complex targets above a randomly rough surface. Ray tracing is carried out both along the incident (forward) direction and converse direction of scattering (backward) recording different orders of ray illumination on each facet or edge of the target and surface. Once a pair of forward and backward rays meet on a facet/edge, a scattering term is constructed using the diffused scattering/diffraction of this facet/edge and all reflections occurred on the tracing paths. The rough surface is modeled with ldquorough facetsrdquo including coherent scattering and diffused incoherent scattering, which can be directly calculated according to the IEM (integral equation method) of a randomly rough surface. Analytic tracing of polygon ray tubes is developed to precisely calculate the illumination and shadowing of facets, which exempt large patches of the target from any finer meshing. It significantly reduces the complexity relevant to the target electric-size. Higher orders of scattering and, in particular, interactions between the target and rough surface are then taken into account. The accuracy and performance of BART is validated and evaluated by comparing with exact computational electromagnetic methods for electrically small targets. Numerical examples of angularly composite scattering from a three-dimensional electrically large, e.g., a ship-like target over a randomly rough surface are presented and discussed.