Investigation of edge scattering by high-resolution polarisation diversity radar imaging

Analyses the polarimetric behaviour of scattering centres showing up in experimental highly resolved two-dimensional radar images of metallic cubes and plates in terms of Kennaugh´s (1952) and Huynen´s (1970) target characteristic operator theory. For each scattering centre, the authors determine the dependence of the characteristic angle γ and of the target skip angle ν on target aspect θ and frequency. The authors find: (i) cube: GTD simulations accounting only for first-order wave propagation to and from the cube edges describe the experimental findings; (ii) plates: the frequency dependence of γ and ν reflects the interference of the two nonresolved edges of the narrow face of the plate. GTD simulations accounting for higher-order scattering agree reasonable with experiment