RCS calculation for penetrable bodies of revolution using FDTD

An attempt was made to determine if the FDTD (finite-difference-time-domain) could be successfully applied using cubical cells to compute RCSs (radar cross sections) for smooth bodies of revolution composed of lossy dielectric materials. The bodies considered were a sphere, an oblate spheroid, and a spherecone-oblate spheroid. These shapes were modeled in three dimensions using cubical cells, and RCS calculations were made by Fourier transform of the far-zone time-domain scattered fields computed by FDTD. The results indicate that for penetrable targets the far-zone RCS calculated using cubical FDTD cells can in many cases be sufficient for estimation of the scattering amplitudes.<>