Analyzing the Electromagnetic Scattering Characteristics for 3-D Inhomogeneous Plasma Sheath Based on PO Method

The scattering characteristics of a blunt cone with electrically large size covered by inhomogeneous plasma sheath are investigated from S-band to Ku-band frequencies by using physical optics (PO) method. PO formulations are derived for conductive objects with inhomogeneous plasma coverage. The numerical results indicate that the plasma inhomogeneity greatly influences the radar cross section (RCS). However, under different incident wave conditions, particularly in the high-frequency band, the scattering results are almost consistent for sine plasma frequency profile and both plasma and collision frequency with sine profile except that the amount of RCS exhibits a little difference at some specific frequencies, indicating the reasonability of the plasma sheath model with only inhomogeneous plasma frequency distribution. Moreover, the effects of the plasma parameters on inhomogeneous plasma scattering are also analyzed.