Analysis of the Variability of the Circular Depolarization Ratio in Remote Sensing of an Inhomogeneous Medium

The influence of an inhomogeneous medium filled with scattering particles (for example, precipitation particles) on the polarization characteristics of electromagnetic waves circularly polarized in one (for example, right-hand) direction that propagate in the medium are considered. An approach is proposed for estimation of the influence of the wave polarization conversion on the magnitude of the circular depolarization ratio. The approach is based on representation of the inhomogeneous medium by the homogeneous region and the second region following it with anisotropic polarization properties and the orientation angle of the polarization eigenbasis relative to the measurement basis. A special feature of the proposed approach is the relationship for calculating the circular depolarization ratio of the probing wave backscattered by the inhomogeneous medium using a complex phasor of the wave scattered by the second (anisotropic) region of the medium.