Integral and Physical Optics Methods for RCS Computation

Accurate knowledge of target radar cross section (RCS) is essential to radar range performance analysis. Though in some cases the RCS can be measured, this is not always possible, so predictive, computational codes are often used instead. This chapter provides an overview of integral equation techniques, which are most commonly used in electromagnetic scattering analysis. It then discusses the most commonly encountered numerical methods used to solve these equations. Several examples are then considered, comparing the accuracy of different methods for the same problem. Accurate knowledge of target radar cross section (RCS) is essential to radar range performance analysis. In this chapter, the authors consider RCS prediction methods, commonly found in predictive codes, common types of RCS data products, and the RCS of complex objects. They cover radiation and scattering problems at a high level, as well as several numerical solution methods, these are deeply complex topics that have been studied at length in the literature, and continue to receive significant academic attention. The authors derive expressions for both the near and far fields in three dimensions. As it is most applicable to the RCS of complex objects, they briefly discuss the approach for 3-D surfaces of arbitrary shape, and common methods for solving the linear system. For digital processing, a surface of arbitrary shape must first be reduced to a set of geometric primitives, and appropriate basis functions developed for those primitives.