Radar cross section of trihedral corner reflectors using PO and MEC

Physical optics (po) and the method of equivalent currents (mec) are used for the formulation and calculation of the backscatter cross section of both the triangular and square trihedral corner reflectors. Scattering from a trihedral corner reflector is dominated by single, double, and triple reflections by the interior walls. A physical optics integration is performed on the entire surface of each plate for the evaluation of the singly reflected fields. Doubly and triply reflected fields are evaluated by first using geometrical optics (go) at initial reflections to calculate the incident plane wave on the plate where the last reflection occurs. Physical optics is then applied on the illuminated area of that plate. First-order diffractions, which are based on the fringe current expressions for the exterior edges of the trihedral, are also included in the analysis. Predictions compare very well with both experimental and fdtd data.