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Active calibration target for bistatic radar cross‐section measurements
Author(s) -
Pienaar M.,
Odendaal J. W.,
Joubert J.,
Cilliers J. E.,
Smit J. C.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
radio science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.371
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1944-799X
pISSN - 0048-6604
DOI - 10.1002/2015rs005931
Subject(s) - bistatic radar , feko , radar cross section , calibration , computer science , remote sensing , passive radar , range (aeronautics) , radar , optics , physics , geology , radar imaging , telecommunications , aerospace engineering , engineering , quantum mechanics , antenna (radio)
Either passive calibration targets are expensive and complex to manufacture or their bistatic radar cross section (RCS) levels are significantly lower than the monostatic RCS levels of targets such as spheres, dihedral, and trihedral corner reflectors. In this paper the performance of an active calibration target with relative high bistatic RCS values is illustrated as a reference target for bistatic RCS measurements. The reference target is simple to manufacture, operates over a wide frequency range, and can be configured to calibrate all four polarizations (VV, HH, HV, and VH). Bistatic RCS measurements of canonical targets, performed in a controlled environment, are calibrated with the reference target and the results are compared to simulated results using FEKO.