This paper presents calibrated radar cross section (RCS) data of various objects considered to be a hazard for a landing helicopter and a technique for extracting these values from inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) imagery. Data was collected at an outdoor facility using a fully polarimetric, 94-GHz radar mounted on an elevator that was positioned on a 125-foot tower to collect data at various depression angles. Targets were placed on a 22-foot diameter turntable and rotated a full 360 degrees to form ISAR imagery at all aspect angles. The technique being described was formulated to enable the extraction of objects of interest from the imagery. In order to calculate accurate RCS data of each object on the turntable, an area within the ISAR image was assigned to each object for every image formed during a full rotation. This area was tracked as it traveled 360 degrees enabling the generation of polar plots of RCS. This was done at multiple depression angles to capture the linear co- and cross-polarized signatures. The measured objects include a large metal cube, a chain link fence and a 1.5-in. diameter wound-metal cable.
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