Theoretical investigations of scattering from plastic foams

The use of cellular or foamed plastics in various microwave applications, such as supports at radar ranges, makes it desirable to know the back scattering properties of such materials. Since the cell structure is of a random nature with some predictable average properties such as cell size and density, it is modeled by an aggregate of randomly distributed spherical shells. Assemblies of scatterers will in general have a coherent and an incoherent scatter. Coherent scattering comes primarily from sudden particle density changes such as that at the boundaries of a particle system. Since coherent scattering comes only from the boundaries of a constant density material, it can sometimes be reduced by appropriate shaping. Incoherent scattering is the result of the contribution of all the particles in the system, i.e, a volume or an interior effect. It represents the irreducible scattering contribution to the total back scatter. As such it can be looked upon as the minimum cross section that can be obtained from a foam structure provided all coherent scatter has been removed. The magnitude of the incoherent scattering is illustrated by calculating radar cross sections for a cylinder made of styrofoam. Since the compressive strength of styrofoam is known, the maximum load that a styrofoam structure can support and the minimum achievable cross section from it can be easily calculated.     

Plane wave pulse backscattering from a low-density dielectric sphere

The solution to the scattering problem of a pulse incident on a low-density dielectric sphere is presented. Pulse modulated harmonic carriers and dc pulses are considered.     

Spatial coherence properties of planar antennas

Lateral spatial coherence of an antenna is modeled by random phase front tilts. An effective source coherence length is introduced, and a generalized Fresnel coefficient which takes into account the coherence of the source is abstracted. Generalized reciprocity relationships for beamwidth and source coherence as well as for observed coherence and source power distribution valid in the near and far field are developed     

The geometric optics contribution to the scattering from a large dense dielectric sphere

An analysis is presented for calculating the backscattered fields of an electromagnetic plane wave by lossless dielectric spheres of arbitrary density. This method involves the Watson transformation which serves to split the exact Mie solution, given as an infinite series, into the geometrical optics fields and the diffracted fields. The former comes from the illuminated region of the sphere and may be obtained from the geometrical optics method. The latter comes from the shadow region and consists of two different types of surface waves. One is a "creeping wave" analogous to that of perfectly conducting spheres. The other is a wave which enters the sphere and emerges as a surface wave in the shadow region. This wave is unique to dielectric spheres and is the stronger of the two surface waves. In the widely used geometric optics methods it is assumed that the optics fields are the dominant contributors even though stationary rays which are not in the direction of backscatter must be added in to give a degree of agreement with the exact Mie series results. In this paper we derive the optics fields and show that they differ in some respects from those obtained by the geometric optics method. They are smaller than heretofore assumed and contribute negligibly to the backscatter in this particular range ofka(4-20). Using our rigorous approach we can show the diffracted fields to be the major contributors to the total backscatter. Numerical results for the backscattering cross sections using diffracted and optics fields, and optics fields alone will be presented for relative index of refraction of 1.6. The agreement between our results (diffracted and optics) and exact results from the Mie series is excellent. A subsequent paper will be concerned with the diffracted fields.     

Effect of source temporal coherence on optical transfer function in weak turbulence

The average image spatial-frequency spectrum of an object under a temporally stationary, spatially incoherent source illumination is calculated in the narrow-band approximation for weak turbulence. It is found that the source temporal coherence has little influence on the performance of the composite turbulence-lens imaging system.     

Radar cross section of curved plates using geometrical and physical diffraction techniques

Geometrical and physical optics techniques, supplemented by their respective extensions, i.e., geometrical and physical diffraction, are applied to the problem of finite cylindrically curved plates. Numerical calculations of the radar backscattering cross sections were made, and a graphical comparison of these methods with experimental results is made. Keller's and Ufimtsev's theories axe discussed and compared as they apply to this problem.