Analysis of radar returns from a rocket plume

The paper examines radar data which provide a detailed view of the rocket plume flowfield of a Black Brant sounding rocket at 24.2 km. It is shown that these data allow a quantitative analysis of rocket plume radar dimensions and amplitudes. Further, the rocket nozzle and exhaust flows are calculated using constant pressure, finite rate chemical kinetics, with turbulent diffusion expressed by eddy diffusivity models. Finally, a first-order modified Born scattering calculation is used for estimating the radar observables of the electrical flowfield, and it is shown that this technique explains all major aspects of the radar observables.