Fast Angular Sweep Monostatic Radar Cross Section Computation via Model Order Reduction

Abstract

The radar cross section (RCS) is a fundamental parameter in radar engineering, as it determines the detectability of a given target by a radar system. Increasing interest in very low observability (VLO) targets has arisen recently. As a result, especial effort is put in developing numerical tools to accurately predict the electromagnetic scattering from perfect electric conductor objects. Integral equation methods are commonly used in this task. However, full-wave computation of the monostatic RCS at a single angle can be rather time-consuming, nevermind computing the RCS in a specific angular interval with a fine sampling. In fact, this is what is needed in industrial applications. A reduced-order model for fast full-wave monostatic RCS evaluation is proposed to easily achieve fine details in the desired angular domain. An open source integral equation solver, taken into account as a black box, is used to get the electromagnetic scattering in non-penetrable objects at some specific incident angles. Several radar targets will show the possibilities and capabilities of these model order reduction approaches.