THE EFFECT OF THE SECONDARY ELECTRON SHEATH ON RADAR RETURN
Abstract
Shaping and coating techniques currently appear to be capable of reducing the back scatter cross section of a missile in the fron shea h bou a missile. It is shown that for an inciden wave in th freque cy range 1,000 to 100,000 mc plasma sheaths having electron densities as high as 10 to the 8th power el/cc are not capable of produci g suffici nt lectro g etic scattering to enhance the radar return. Thus e e bout h u ncy range of most conventional radars. Since it is believed th t ionospheric missile phenomena may enhance radar retur , calculations ere made to ev luate the significance of an elec ron shea h bou a missile. It is shown that for an inciden wave in th freque cy range 1,000 to 100,000 mc plasma sheaths having electron densities as high as 10 to the 8th power el/cc are not capable of produci g suffici nt lectro g etic scattering to enhance the radar return. Thus e e bout h pe of a cone does not produce a blu ting effect ic is necessary in order to eliminate the reduction in cross section that is obtained by shaping. The radar cross section of e m tal sphere pl a h at combina ion is calculated in the 10 - 200 mc range. It is een that the eff ct of he plasm sheath is most significant in the frequency range wh re r sonant sc t ring i important. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 01, 1962
- Accession Number
- AD0283573
Entities
People
- A. Kritz
- R. Abramoff
Organizations
- General Dynamics