Numerical analysis of radar cross-sections of a conducting cylinder in a strong turbulent medium

Abstract

When a body is surrounded by a random medium, the radar cross-section (RCS) is expected to be sometimes remarkably different from that in free space. In general, the problem of wave scattering from a body in a random medium needs to be treated by taking account of the boundary conditions of incident and scattered waves on the body. Recently, the authors have presented a method for solving it as a boundary value problem and analyzed numerically RCS of a conducting elliptic cylinder in such a strong turbulent medium that an incident wave becomes incoherent. The numerical analysis shows that the spatial coherence length of an incident wave on the body plays a central role in determining RCS as well as the effect of double passage which results in backscattering enhancement. Through the analysis, they have made clear the characteristics of RCS for some elliptic cylinders: that is, some convex cylinders. When the spatial coherence length becomes comparable to an effective width of the illuminated surface of a body, RCS changes largely and is enhanced or diminished as compared with that in free space. In this case, the curvature of a body surface has also an important effect on RCS. This paper makes more clear the curvature effect on RCS in a random medium, by assuming the E wave incidence and analyzing numerically RCS of a conducting cylinder with a concave-convex surface.