Wave Propagation in Vegetation Field Using a Hybrid Method

In this paper, we develop a hybrid method for studying wave scatterings and propagation in a vegetation field. The coherent multiple scatterings among the plants and the gaps in the vegetation field are considered through a two-step hybrid method. First, the T-matrix of a single plant is calculated using the Huygens principle and the vector cylindrical waves (VCW) expansion based on the full-wave solutions from the Ansys High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS). Second, the multiple scatterings between different plants are considered through the Foldy-Lax multiple scattering (FL) equations using the calculated T-matrix and the translational addition theorem. The convergence and the accuracy of the hybrid method are verified with the HFSS by comparing the solutions of scatterings from four wheat plants. The full-wave Monte Carlo simulations of a field with 169 wheat plants at L-band are subsequently performed using the hybrid method. Numerical results show that the transmission in the gap region is significantly higher than that of the inner region with the difference given quantitatively. The transmissivity of microwave through the wheat field with a large vegetation water content (VWC) can be significantly underestimated by the classical radiative transfer equation (RTE) and distorted Born approximation (DBA) model.