Degradation of Metal Corner Reflectors’ Radar Cross-Section in a Radome with Imperfect Characteristics

This paper presents a study of electromagnetic (EM) backscattering from a metal corner reflector (MCR) in an imperfect radome scenario. The "defocus" behavior of scattering fields by the imperfect radome results in the degradation of radar cross-section (RCS) from the MCR. It causes incorrect justification of antenna behaviors in RCS estimation for the target under detection. In this study, three simplified radome models are simulated by EM full-wave analysis to verify the impact of defocusing behaviors on RCS estimations. The computed RCS curves show the explicit degradation of RCS performance, especially on the horizontal plane, the most often scanned plane to estimate RCSs.