Issues in the calibration of bistatic RCS measurements

A performance evaluation of several existing polarimetric calibration techniques for bistatic radar cross section (RCS) measurements is in progress. Several calibration test objects, including: cylinders, a dihedral, a trihedral, a sphere, and other noncanonical objects were measured at the European Microwave Signature Laboratory (EMSL), Joint Research Center (JRC), Ispra, Italy. Each object was measured with and without a systematic alignment error to determine the effects on each of the calibration techniques considered. Three calibration types were designated, based on their capability to predict each coefficient of a 20-term error model of the antenna polarization distortion matrix (PDM). The bistatic RCS predictions were completed using a commercially available moment method code to validate the measurements for alignment precision and noise/distortion levels.