Doppler Spectrum of Scattered Wave From Two-Dimensional Time-Varying Nonlinear Sea Surfaces Under Right-Hand Circularly Polarized Wave Incidence

Abstract

Electromagnetic scattering from time-varying sea surfaces under right-hand circularly polarized (RHCP) wave incidence is investigated, with emphasis on exploring the influence of nonlinear hydrodynamic interactions on Doppler spectral signatures as well as on examining the polarization difference of Doppler spectra between right-hand and left-hand polarized scattering waves. The choppy wave model (CWM) is adopted for describing nonlinear hydrodynamic interactions between ocean waves, and it is constructed by adding horizontal displacements through performing Hilbert transform for a reference linear surface model. Simulation results show that Doppler spectral signatures are significantly influenced by nonlinear hydrodynamic interactions in particular in low-grazing angle regime. It is also indicated that Doppler spectral signatures show distinct polarization dependence. In addition, numerical simulations show that Doppler shift of left-hand polarized scattering wave increases obviously with wind speed increasing, whereas the Doppler shift of right-hand polarized scattering wave looks less sensitive to wind speed variations. The result is potentially valuable in remote sensing applications with Global Navigation Satellite System-Reflectometry (GNSS-R) signals.