Full-Wave Scattering and Imaging Characterization of Realistic Trees for FOPEN Sensing

The electromagnetic characterization of realistic tree structures is performed to facilitate the development of low-frequency (P-band) foliage penetration radars. The full-wave approach employs a parallelized 3-D finite-difference time-domain algorithm deployed on high-performance computing systems to simulate the far-field scattering responses from scenes. The backscattering behaviors of a single tree are first considered as a function of frequency, polarization, signal incidence angle, and structural fidelity, and then, large-scale simulations are carried out to examine the responses of a forest stand in both the frequency and imaging domains. The results featured are from the first phase of an ongoing study to investigate the feasibility of applying large-scale electromagnetic simulations to support airborne-based sensing of obscured ground targets.