On mathematical and physical principles of transformations of the coherent radar backscatter matrix

Bebbington, D. and Carrea, L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3280-2767 (2012) On mathematical and physical principles of transformations of the coherent radar backscatter matrix. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 50 (11). pp. 4657-4669. ISSN 0196-2892 doi: 10.1109/TGRS.2012.2191294

Abstract/Summary

The congruential rule advanced by Graves for polarization basis transformation of the radar backscatter matrix is now often misinterpreted as an example of consimilarity transformation. However, consimilarity transformations imply a physically unrealistic antilinear time-reversal operation. This is just one of the approaches found in literature to the description of transformations where the role of conjugation has been misunderstood. In this paper, the different approaches are examined in particular in respect to the role of conjugation. In order to justify and correctly derive the congruential rule for polarization basis transformation and properly place the role of conjugation, the origin of the problem is traced back to the derivation of the antenna height from the transmitted field. In fact, careful consideration of the role played by the Green’s dyadic operator relating the antenna height to the transmitted field shows that, under general unitary basis transformation, it is not justified to assume a scalar relationship between them. Invariance of the voltage equation shows that antenna states and wave states must in fact lie in dual spaces, a distinction not captured in conventional Jones vector formalism. Introducing spinor formalism, and with the use of an alternate spin frame for the transmitted field a mathematically consistent implementation of the directional wave formalism is obtained. Examples are given comparing the wider generality of the congruential rule in both active and passive transformations with the consimilarity rule.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/54612
Identification Number/DOI	10.1109/TGRS.2012.2191294
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
Publisher	IEEE
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