Bistatic RCS calculations with the vector parabolic equation method

The vector parabolic equation (PE) method provides accurate solutions for electromagnetic scattering from three-dimensional (3-D) objects ranging from a size comparable to the wavelength of the incident wave to several tens of wavelengths. A paraxial version of Maxwell's equations is solved with a marching solution that only requires limited computing resources, even for large scatterers. By decoupling the PE paraxial direction from the direction of incidence, the bistatic radar cross section (RCS) can be computed at all scattering angles. A sparse-matrix formulation is used to implement electromagnetic boundary conditions, ensuring that polarization effects are treated fully. Computing costs are kept to a minimum through the use of a double-pass method so that calculations can be carried out on a desktop computer for realistic targets and radar frequencies. The method has been validated on simple canonical shapes and tested on complex targets.