High Frequency and Pulse Scattering

Book excerpt: High Frequency and Pulse Scattering investigates high frequency and pulse scattering, with emphasis on the phenomenon of echoes from objects. Geometrical and catastrophe optics methods in scattering are discussed, along with the scattering of sound pulses and the ringing of target resonances. Caustics and associated diffraction catastrophes are also examined. Comprised of two chapters, this volume begins with a detailed account of geometrically based approximation methods in scattering theory, focusing on waves transmitted through fluid and elastic scatterers and glory scattering; surface ray representations of scattering by shells and other smooth objects; and caustics and associated diffraction catastrophes. The second chapter deals with the relation between sound pulses and the vibrational spectra of elastic submerged objects. The theory of the scattering of sound pulses from elastic and impenetrable objects is described, together with the theory of surface wave pulses. Target resonances and the singularity expansion method are also analyzed. This book will be of interest to physicists.