A study of existing bistatic calibration techniques

A performance evaluation of several existing polarimetric calibration techniques for bistatic radar cross section (RCS) measurements was performed. Several calibration test objects, including cylinders, a dihedral, a trihedral, a sphere, and other non-canonical objects were measured at the European Microwave Signature Laboratory (EMSL), Joint Research Centre (JRC), Ispra, Italy. Three calibration types were designated, based on their capability to predict each coefficient of a 20-term error model of the antenna polarization distortion matrix (PDM). Bistatic RCS predictions were completed using a commercially available method of moments code to validate the measurements for alignment precision and noise/distortion levels.