Rayleigh and Mie Scattering

  Rayleigh Regime

Water Spheres:

Ice Spheres:

If l = 10 cm (88-D) then D = 5 mm or less for Rayleigh scattering

If l = 3 cm (X-band) then D = 1.5 mm or less for Rayleigh scattering

So, X-band is more susceptible to Mie scattering, and therefore violating the radar equation than S-band radars (88-D).


EQUIVALENT RADAR REFLECTIVITY FACTOR

We have previously derived the radar equation for distributed targets:

   (18)

 

  (19)

This form of the radar equation assumes that all targets are:

  1. Rayleigh scatterers
  2. water

even though this is often not the case.