Effect of Beam Scanning on Target Polarization Scattering Matrix Observed by Fully Polarimetric Phased-array Radar

Abstract

The polarization feature of a fully Polarimetric Phased-Array Radar (PPAR) antenna varies according to the beam-scanning angle, thereby introducing two problems on the target Polarization Scattering Matrix (PSM) measurement. First, the antenna polarization basis is defined within the vertical cross-section of an electromagnetic wave propagation direction, and the polarization basis of each beam direction angle is not identical, resulting in the PSM of a fixed-posture target observed by PPAR being not identical for different beam-scanning angles. Second, the cross polarization of the PPAR antenna increases with increasing beamscanning angle, resulting in a crosstalk among the elements of PSM observed by PPAR. This study focuses on the analysis of the abovementioned two aspects of the effect of beam scanning on target PSM observed by PPAR. The results will establish a more accurate observation of the equation for the precision PSM measurement of PPAR.

Keywords

• Polarization scattering matrix
• Full Polarimetric Phased-Array Radar (PPAR)
• Beam scanning