Polarimetric calibration of indoor and outdoor polarimetric radar cross section systems

Published

November 16, 2008

Author(s)

Lorant A. Muth

Abstract

We use a set of dihedrals to perform polarimetric calibrations on an indoor RCS measurement range. We obtain simultaneously hh, hv, vh, and vv polarimetric data as the calibration dihedrals rotate about the line-of-site to the radar. We apply Fourier analysis to the data to determine the polarimetric system parameters, which are expected to be very small. We also obtain polarimetric measurements on two cylinders to verify tha accuracy of the system parameters. We develop simple criteria to assess the data consistency over the very large dynamic range demanded by the dihedrals. We examine data contamination by system drift, dynamic range nonlinearities, and the presence of background and noise. We propose improved measurement procedures to enhance consistency between the dihedral and cylinder measurements and to minimize the uncertainty in the polarimetric system parameters. The final recommended procedure can be used to calibrate polarimetrically both indoor and outdoor ranges.

Proceedings Title

Antenna Measurements Techniques Association

Conference Dates

November 17-21, 2008

Conference Location

Boston, MA

Pub Type

Conferences

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Keywords

background and drift, measurement uncertainty, polarimetric calibration, radar cross section, reproducibility

Citation

Muth, L. (2008), Polarimetric calibration of indoor and outdoor polarimetric radar cross section systems, Antenna Measurements Techniques Association, Boston, MA, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=33138 (Accessed September 14, 2024)