Bistatic radar scattering experiments of parallel wire grids

The continued interest in bistatic polarimetric radar, particularly for SAR applications, has resulted in the requirement for additional simple, well characterized targets for external calibration. These targets must enable both bistatic and polarimetric radar modes to be calibrated, often to a precision of less than 1 dB. Previous research has shown that the use of wire grid structures could be a suitable bistatic calibration reference. In this paper we investigate the far-field bistatic scattering from a grid of parallel thin wires of different grid spacings. Experiments are conducted using the European Microwave Signature Laboratory (EMSL) over a frequency range of between 5 to 15 GHz for bistatic angles from 5 degrees to 150 degrees. The data was calibrated and compared to a Method of Moments (MOM) theoretical solution.