Analysis of Echo Characteristics of Spatially Inhomogeneous and Time-Varying Plasma Sheath

The “black barrier” phenomenon caused by plasma sheath during the reentry of a high-speed target will seriously affect the detection of radar echo by a ground monitoring station, which is not conducive to making corresponding adjustments to different situations in real-time. The echo reflects the information of the target's position and speed, which is significant for real-time monitoring and effective strike. In this work, the effect of a high-speed target plasma sheath on electromagnetic wave echo characteristics was investigated by using the proposed spatially inhomogeneous and time-varying plasma sheath model. The Z-transform finite-difference time domain (Z-FDTD) method was adopted to calculate the time domain and frequency domain results of the echo in plasma sheaths with spatially inhomogeneous, uniform and spatially inhomogeneous and time-varying electron density distributions. The effects of different time-varying parameters and plasma parameters on the echo characteristics of the plasma sheath were analyzed. The results show that the reflected echo in spatially inhomogeneous and time-varying plasma is less than that of the other two. The magnitude of the reflected echo is proportional to the time-varying parameter peak coefficient and Gaussian width, and inversely proportional to the collision frequency and plasma thickness. The theoretical results provide important guidance for ground monitoring and anti-stealth.