Two-dimensional Numerical Simulation of Microwave Imaging Reflectometry

This work describes a numerical study of the two dimensional turbulent fluctuations in microwave imaging reflectometry (MIR) system. The numerical results show that the fluctuations of the cutoff surface can be obtained from the phase of the reflected waves when these are collected with a wide aperture optical lens system, which is used to form an image of the cutoff onto the detector surface. A laboratory arrangement of the MIR system is made. The preliminary tests show that the MIR system works well at the in-focus condition when the fluctuation amplitude is much smaller than the wavelength of the launching wave. However, the reflected signals are distorted at strong fluctuations. The relationships between the fluctuation amplitude and the wavenumber of the fluctuation which may cause the distortions of the reflected signals, are discussed.