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Backscattering

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Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

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Backscatter

Backscattering (or backscatter) is the reflection of waves, particles, or signals back to the direction they came from. Backscattering is defined also as the phenomenon that occurs when radiation or particles are scattered at angles to the original direction of motion of greater than 90°. It is a diffuse reflection due to scattering, as opposed to specular reflection like a mirror. The term is used in several fields of physics, as well as in photography, telecommunication, computer network security, security imaging systems, and e-mail. Backscattering has also important applications in astronomy and medical ultrasonography (Wikipedia).

The incoming waves or particles can be scattered by quite different mechanisms:

  • Rayleigh scattering of electromagnetic waves from small particles, diffuse reflection from large particles, or Mie scattering in the intermediate case, causing alpenglow and gegenschein, and showing up in weather radar

  • Inelastic collisions between...

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Correspondence to Bogusław Usowicz .

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© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

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Usowicz, B. (2011). Backscattering. In: Gliński, J., Horabik, J., Lipiec, J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Agrophysics. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3585-1_16

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