Radar cross-section measurements of ice particles using vector network analyzer

Abstract

We carried out radar cross-section (RSC) measurements of ice particles in a microwave anechoic chamber at Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology. We used microwave similarity theory to enlarge the size of particle from the micrometer to millimeter scale and to reduce the testing frequency from 94 GHz to 10 GHz. The microwave similarity theory was validated using the method of moments for single metal sphere, single dielectric sphere, and spherical and non-spherical dielectric particle swarms. The differences between the retrieved and theoretical results at 94 GHz were 0.016117%, 0.0023029%, 0.027627%, and 0.0046053%, respectively. We proposed a device that can measure the RCS of ice particles in the chamber based on the S21 parameter obtained from vector network analyzer. On the basis of the measured S21 parameter of the calibration material (metal plates) and their corresponding theoretical RCS values, the RCS values of a spherical Teflon particle swarm and cuboid candle particle swarm was retrieved at 10 GHz. In this case, the differences between the retrieved and theoretical results were 12.72% and 24.49% for the Teflon particle swarm and cuboid candle swarm, respectively.