Outgoing angular spectrum ($\mathcal{E}g=(2\pi {)}^{-1}\int \hat{g}(q)e^{iqx+i\beta (q)z}dq$)

The outgoing angular spectrum propagates prescribed scalar boundary data into a half-space. For $e^{-i\omega t}$ time dependence, $\beta (q)=\sqrt{k^2-q^2}$ has nonnegative real part on propagating modes and nonnegative imaginary part on evanescent modes. Its trace at the boundary is $g$, and each mode solves the Helmholtz equation. The spectral representation can be interpreted through distributions for nondecaying plane-wave data.

Use $\hat{\psi }(\nu )=\int \psi (x,0)e^{-i\nu x}dx$ and $q(\nu )=\sqrt{k^2-{\nu }^2}$ on the upward branch. If the uncentered field correlation is translationally homogeneous and $⟨\hat{\psi }(\nu )\hat{\psi }({\nu }^{\prime }{)}^{\ast }⟩=2\pi S(\nu )\delta (\nu -{\nu }^{\prime })$, its correlation at height $z$ is the displayed integral. The propagating spectrum is unchanged; evanescent contributions decrease as $e^{-2\sqrt{{\nu }^2-k^2}z}$. A spectral measure of a stationary random field permits discrete coherent components. Without correlation homogeneity a double spectral covariance integral depends on both observation coordinates rather than only their separation.

An upward angular spectrum obtained from a horizontal field trace is exact in the homogeneous half-space above that reference plane. For a rough boundary $z=f(x)$, choose the plane above $\sup f$. A trace at $z=0$ is not physically defined in the medium if any part of the surface lies above it. Using such a mean-plane trace requires an analytic continuation convention; convergence of the continued spectrum down to the rough boundary is an additional hypothesis. Small-height boundary perturbation uses the reference plane formally order by order and is distinct from an exact expansion throughout an arbitrary rough domain.