Millimeter-wave Polarimetric Radar Scattering From Snow

A truck mounted, fully polarimetric radar system was used for measuring the backscattering from snow-covered terrain at 35 and 94 GHz. The radar system is capable of obtaining the Mueller matrix using the coherent-on-receive method. In this technique, the radar transmits 6 different polarizations and measures magnitude and phase of V and H channels simultaneously. The Mueller matrix and the degree of polarization were obtained as a function of incidence angle and the terrain roughness. The diurnal measurement showed that the degree of polarization was sensitive to the snow liquid water content. polarization was approximately 0.5 for the circular incidence polarization. During the warm daytime, on the other hand, the degree of polarization increased to about 0.8.