Introduction To Radar Cross Section Measurements

The leading text and reference on radar cross section (RCS) theory and applications, this work presents a comparison of two radar signal strengths. One is the strength of the radar bean sweeping over a target, the other is the strength of the reflected echo senses by the receiver. This book shows how the RCS "gauge" can be predicted for theoretical objects.

The original campus of the University of Michigan was nearly a perfect square about a half-mile along a side. A street-sized walk, appropriately called the Diag, runs diagonally across this square, connecting its southeast and northwest corners. In 1904 a new engineering building was either started or finished (I do not remember which) to house classrooms. When another engineering building was built on the expanded campus across the street from it many years later, the old building came to be known as West Engine, to distinguish it from the new East Engine. Old West Engine is (or maybe by now, was) a four-story, L-shaped structure that stood at the southeast corner of the original campus. It was built with an arch in it to straddle the Diag at the apex of the L. You walked over the Engineering Arch to get from one leg of the L to the other if you were inside the building, and you walked under it when you entered the campus from the southeast corner. Affixed to the masonry wall of the arch was a plaque I often noted in passing. It bore a quote attributed to Horace Greeley (1811-1872), who I did not know at the time was the founder, editor, and publisher of the New York Tribune. It said, simply, Young man, when theory and practice differ, use your horse sense. The suggestion seems worthy of an exclamation point instead of a period, but I do not remember if it had one.

This guide explains how radar cross section (RCS) is measured and tested with good measurement practice including assuring that the electromagnetic test environment is optimized for the particular object being measured. It also provides basic and advanced information on instrumentation systems, test range design, and measurement technology.

This book discusses the active and passive radar cross section (RCS) estimation and techniques to examine the low observable aerospace platforms. It begins with the fundamentals of RCS, followed by the dielectric, magnetic and metamaterials parameters of the constituent materials and then explains various methods and the emerging trends followed in this area of study. The RCS estimation of phased array including the mutual coupling effect is also presented in detail in the book. The active RCS reduction is carefully touched upon through the performance of phased arrays, sidelobe cancellers and mitigation of multipath effect. Providing information on various adaptive algorithms like least mean square (LMS), recursive least square (RLS) and weighted least square algorithms, the authors also mention the recent developments in the area of embedded antennas, conformal load bearing antenna, metamaterials and frequency selective surface (FSS) based RCS reduction.

Methods of Radar Cross-section Analysis

With this book practitioners responsible for analyzing, specifying or evaluating RCS imaging systems will be able to define performance limits using basic physical and mathematical principles. Information on instrumentation systems for acquiring data and two new chapters on applications of new techniques are included. The emphasis of the book is on imaging as applied to radar cross-section measurements. With it the reader will learn how to use the latest techniques to perform RCS imaging in laboratory or outdoor test ranges. This book is suitable for self-study or for use in a short course for practising engineers.