A successive scattering methodology with application to two cylinders in the Fresnel region of each other

We present an efficient approach to compute the second-order scattering of an electromagnetic wave by two discrete scatterers in proximity to each other. Such a two-body system represents the simplest canonical arrangement to address near-field volume scattering phenomena in microwave remote sensing models of vegetation. Using an analytical wave-based approach, a successive scattering methodology is employed to derive the first interaction term in multiple scattering by two arbitrary scatterers in terms of their transition operators. The general formulation is applied to find the second-order bistatic scattering amplitude for a pair of finite length thin cylinders at arbitrary interaction distances using the exact Green's function. To improve computational efficiency, the solution is then specialized to the Fresnel region. These second-order bistatic scattering amplitude results are in agreement with the exact Green's function model when the scatterers are in the Fresnel region of each other. Additionally, it is demonstrated that using the far field approximation in the Fresnel region can yield significant deviations from the exact results. The Fresnel model, unlike the far field approximation, accurately predicts the scattering amplitude peak values and null locations, and is suited to fast solutions in realistic canopy simulations.