Analysis of the electromagnetic wave scattering characteristics of time-varying plasma sheath

When a hypersonic vehicle reenters into the Earth s atmosphere, the vehicle will be covered by a plasma sheath which is inhomogeneous and time-varying. In order to investigate the effects of electromagnetic (EM) wave how to spread in the plasma sheath, a modified finite-difference time-domain (JEC-FDTD) algorithm is applied to three-dimensional (3-D) time-varying plasma. Analyze the radar cross section (RCS) of plasma sheath in which the temperature, collision frequency, electron density are varying with time. The results show that the time-varying parameters of plasma sheath have noticeable effects on EM wave propagation.