[enriquto]

> looking at smooth, undisturbed surfaces like the roofs of buildings

a flat roof (with fine enough texture) will be reflective thus invisible. What you see are precisely tiny "corner" reflectors formed by large enough gravel, rocks and building structures. On a mountainous area, as long as you have some rocks and gravel here and there, you are still able to find correlations--and thus interferences. Of course, if all you have is wet mud and vegetation there's nothing to do, but this is not often the case. In a region of special interest like near a mine, people often install ad-hoc corner reflectors at calibrated positions.