Evaluation of polarisation characteristics of power-line RCS at 76 GHz for helicopter obstacle detection

The polarisation characteristics of a high-voltage power-line radar cross-section (RCS) at 76 GHz are experimentally evaluated to improve the detection conditions of the helicopter obstacle detection radar system. Vertical polarisation transmission and reception (V-V) are normally used to detect power lines. In addition to V-V polarisation, horizontal transmission and reception (H-H) polarisation characteristics are measured for the two types of high-voltage power lines. For V-V polarisation, the measured RCS characteristics of the power lines agree well with those previously reported at 35 and 94 GHz. However, the measured results of the H-H polarisation are almost the same as, or higher than, those of the V-V polarisation.