Page 104 - Fundamentals of Radar Signal Processing

Source: After Skolnik (2001).

TABLE 2.1 Typical RCS Values at Microwave Frequencies

2.2.4 Radar Cross Section for Meteorological Targets
The field of radar meteorology expresses the reflectivity of weather targets such
as rain or snow in terms of a normalized factor called the reflectivity (here

called the volume reflectivity) and usually represented with the symbol Z
(Sauvageot, 1992; Doviak and Zrnic, 1993). Weather targets are an example of
volume clutter. The actual observed echo is the composite backscatter of many
raindrops, suspended water particles, hailstones, or snowflakes in the radar’s
resolution cell.

Suppose the RCS of the ith individual scatterer is σ and assume
i
noncoherent addition. Then the total RCS of a volume V containing N such
scatterers is Σσ and the volume reflectivity is
i

(2.39)

Water droplets are often modeled as small conducting spheres. When the