A fast hybrid analytical and numerical physical optics analysis of very large cylindrical reflectors with linear feed arrays

A novel hybrid combination of asymptotic high frequency analysis with the numerical physical optics (PO) procedure is introduced for the fast and accurate prediction of the far field scattering from a very large perfectly conducting cylindrical reflector with slowly varying but otherwise arbitrary cross section. This reflector is fed by stacked linear periodic phased arrays of electric point currents to simplify the array modeling for the present. The application of this study is to predict the performance of a large spaceborne cylindrical scanning reflector being built by Harris Corporation under the ISAT program.