A model for determination of radome transmission, reflection, depolarization, loss, and effects on antenna patterns

Even though a radar antenna may be carefully designed to have low sidelobes and high radiation efficiency, a poorly designed radome can degrade its performance seriously. Degradation occurs both because of losses in the radome and by distortion in the antenna pattern as a result of deformation of the effective illumination pattern. In addition, radiation scattered from the radome may affect the radar performance by elevating antenna sidelobes, thus adding to the clutter that must be mitigated via signal processing. We present a method for analyzing radome performance and give examples of calculations showing transmission, reflection, loss, and antenna pattern effects for spherical and ogive radomes. The approach is sufficiently general for application to almost any radome shape.