The scattering of radar pulses from wires: interpretation of multiple returns

Abstract

Exact calculations of the scattering of radar pulses from a perfectly conducting wire, employing the Einarsson expression for the wire scattering amplitude, have indicated (Y. Guo, Ph.D. thesis, Catholic University, Washington, DC) the appearance of multiple return pulses, related to back‐and‐forth reflections of traveling waves along the wire. These reflections give rise to resonances in the scattering amplitude. We here show, using a method devised by Werby for an analogous acoustic scattering problem, that the set of resonances can be mathematically related to the appearance of pulsed multiple returns, hereby providing an alternate, simplified approach to the study of traveling wave pulses and their generating of return pulses in radar scattering from wires.