Establishment of a Wideband Radar Scattering Center Model of a Plasma Sheath

Abstract

A reentry object covered by a plasma sheath will produce two reflective signals in a radar echo, which seriously affects the detection of the reentry object by radar and results in positioning error and even tracking loss. On the basis of the scattering center model and the non-uniform plasma stratification model, the present paper establishes a radar scattering model of a reentry object covered by a plasma sheath. The model effectively retains the plasma distribution and electromagnetic wave propagation characteristics of the plasma sheath. Analysis of the signal components of radar echoes in an example shows to some extent that the non-mirror reflection signal is not generated by the plasma wake.

Keywords

• Plasma sheath
• scattering centers
• Doppler effect
• wideband radar
• transmission line analogy