Publications Details
A dihedral corner reflector model for full polarization calibration of RCS measurements
While the backscattered field as a function of angular incidence of a plane wave for dihedral corner reflectors having right, acute, and obtuse angles has been studied extensively, it has generally been stated that the RCS of a 90{degree} dihedral corner reflector oriented for maximum backscattered return to a radar is given by the expression {sigma} = 8{pi}a{sup 2}b{sup 2}/{lambda}{sup 2}. The intent of this paper is to present experimental results which demonstrate that not only does the RCS of a dihedral corner reflector oriented for maximum backscattered return differ significantly from this value, but that high range resolution measurements of the dihedral can serve to identify the dominant contributors to the backscattered field. Further, inclusion of these backscattered components in an analytical calculation will allow an accurate calibration model to be generated. 6 refs., 8 figs.