Traveling Wave Scattering Center Model and Its Applications to ISAR Imaging

Traveling waves can be supported by long, smooth surfaces under horizontal polarization, such as the wings or bodies of aircraft. A 3-D scattering center (SC) model for traveling waves is proposed in this work. The equivalent location of the SC and the dependence function of scattering amplitude on aspect angles is derived based on traveling wave antenna theory and modified according to real scattering characteristics. Chamber-measured data and full-wave numerical results of a series of geometries are presented to verify the validity of this model in imaging simulation. We find that the equivalent position of this SC is located along a circular arc. In consideration of its polarization characteristics and inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) image signatures, the proposed SC model is promising for used in the model-based automatic target recognition (ATR) to distinguish traveling waves from other scattering components.