A hybrid model of polarized BRDF for rough surfaces

A new hybrid model of polarized bidirectional reflectance distribution function (p-BRDF) based on the micro-facet theory for painted rough surfaces combined by physics and statistical method is proposed. A 4 × 4 matrix (Mueller matrix) is used to describe the character of the polarized light scattered from the surface. The p-BRDF excellently represents the properties of the complex surfaces, playing a major role to evaluate and simulate signatures of the natural or artificial targets. In the model, genetic algorithm is employed to obtain key parameters derived from the experimental data. Comparisons between the model calculation and experimental data are also discussed in detail for several painted surfaces. This model agrees well with the experimental data, indicating great applicable to target polarization feature extraction.