Incoherent intensities of electromagnetic waves in a random medium layer and radiative transfer theory

摘要

Equations for incoherent intensities are obtained for electromagnetic waves in a random medium layer with plane parallel boundaries. These are based on the Bethe-Salpeter equation under the ladder approximation. These equations are then compared with the radiative transfer equations for this problem. Differences between these two approaches are pointed out and discussed. The Muller matrix is derived based on a first-order approximation to the equations for incoherent intensities which is then used to highlight the significance of the above-mentioned differences in radar cross-section computations.