Radar Cross Section of Simple Objects in the

Presence of an Infinite Conducting Plane

Ronny R. O. Alves

Mauricio H. C. Dias, Jos C. A. Santos

Diretoria de Sistemas de Armas da Marinha DSAM

(Brazilian Navy Weapons Systems Directorate)
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
ronny@ime.eb.br

Instituto Militar de Engenharia IME

(Military Institute of Engineering)
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
{mhcdias, araujo}@ime.eb.br

Abstract - This paper analyzes the radar cross section (RCS) of

two simple geometric shape objects a sphere and a flat plate
in the presence of an infinite perfect conducting plane.
Simulations are carried out using the software CST Microwave
Studio, and its shown how the presence of a conducting plane
changes the original RCS of the individual objects at free space
as they penetrate the conducting plane. The normalized RCS
has a typical behavior and can be modeled by simple equations
for each object as a function of its relative height to the
conductive ground plane.

where Pt is the transmitted power, Pr is the received power,

is the electromagnetic wavelength, Gt and Gr are the total
gain of the system transmitter and receiver, respectively, R
is the distance form the antenna to the target, and is the
radar cross section of the target. The latter quantity is
usually given in dBm2, where (dBm2) = 10 log ( / 1 m2).

Keywords Radar, radar cross section, electromagnetic

scattering, monostatic scattering, simulation.

I. INTRODUCTION
Radar cross section (RCS) is an attribute of an object
that indicates its ability to scatter the electromagnetic wave
incident to it. The characterization of the RCS of an object
is a subject of interest in the design of radar systems and in
stealth analysis of ships, aircraft and tanks for both military
and civil applications [1]. Theoretical and experimental
evaluation of RCS from objects with simple geometric
shapes is an easy task, and there are numerous techniques in
the literature for this purpose [2][3][4]. Experimental
procedures are carried out in anechoic chambers and in free
space environments (open area test sites) [5][6].

This paper analyzes the radar cross section of two simple

objects a sphere and a flat plate in the presence of an
infinite perfect conducting plane. Simulations are performed
with CST Microwave Studio [8], and its investigated how
the RCS of the individual objects changes as they penetrate
the conducting plane.
The aim of this work is to investigate if and how the
actual RCS of a real ship at sea can be estimated from either
numerical simulations or measurements of its model in free
space or in an anechoic chamber. The penetration depth of
the objects in the conducting plane is related to the
penetration of the ship in the seawater.
Section II presents a brief discussion of some key
concepts in RCS theory, such as high frequency scattering
mechanisms, far field requirement, and target ground
interaction effects. Section III presents the simulations with
a sphere and a square flat plate. Results and discussions are
presented on Section IV, and Section V concludes the paper.

RCS from targets with complex geometries can be

modeled as the net scattering of a phasor sum of the
contribution of all individual scattering centers to the total
objects RCS. Fig. 1 shows a case study for a ship, which
was modeled by a collection of scatterers, formed by objects
with simple geometrical shapes such flat plates, spheres,
cylinders, etc.
The received power due to an electromagnetic wave
scattered by an object is directly proportional to the RCS of
this object, as given by the radar range equation

(1)

Fig. 1. Target scattering mechanisms at high frequency [7].

measured on direct path in free space, and is the total radar

cross section.

II. THEORY OF SCATTERING , FARFIELD AND TARGET

INTERACTIONS

A. High frequency scattering

The high frequency scattering, or optical region, occurs
when the wavelength of the incident electromagnetic wave
is much smaller than the scattering body (a condition that is
usually met for most targets of interest in the microwave
region). The scattering mechanisms usually make up the net
scattering from a target as in Fig. 1, and can be organized in
descending order of importance as [1][2]:
a) Specular scattering from planar and curved surfaces;
b) Multiple bounce dihedral or trihedral corner
reflectors;
c) End region returns from planar and singly curved
surfaces;
d) Diffraction from the edges;
e) Surface wave scattering;
f) Tip diffraction; and
g) Scattering from surface discontinuities.
B. The far field requirement
The formal definition of radar cross section states that
the distance R between the radar and target must be infinite.
The limiting condition essentially requires that the target be
illuminated by a plane wave. Since the incident wave on a
target in practical measurements is nearly a spherical wave,
due to the finite separation between the target and the
instrumentation radar, far field condition is established
when the phase deviation between center and extremes of
the target is less than /8 rd (or 22.5), so that
(2)
where d is the largest dimension of the target and is the
wavelength of the incident wave.

C. Target ground interactions

Fig. 2. Ground plane range geometry interactions [3].

III. SIMULATIONS OF THE TWO TARGET OBJECTS

The simulations are performed with two perfect electrical
conductor objects: a square flat plate with dimensions
2 2 0.2 m3, and a sphere with 2 m diameter. Fig. 3 shows
the sphere, as it penetrates the ground plane.
Simulations are carried out with the objects at different
heights above the conducting plane. Table I shows the
simulated results of the sphere and the flat plate for a signal
with horizontal and vertical polarizations at 1 GHz. The
heights are normalized by the diameter of the sphere and by
the length of the side of the square flat plate, respectively,
and the RCS is normalized by the maximum theoretical
values at free space RCS of each object. Data shown in
Table I correspond to the peak value of the normalized RCS
in azimuth for an elevation angle from 0 to 15. The objects
are completely immersed in the conductive media when the
normalized height reaches 1.
Fig. 4 shows the non normalized radar cross section of
the square flat plate with vertical polarization in the presence
of a perfect infinite conducting plane for different heights
from the ground. The increment of 6 dB in the total RCS of
the object above the conducting plane when compared to the
corresponding RCS at free space is related to the reflections
in the conducting surface as expected by (3).

No matter where a test target is installed, the ground

floor or walls of the facility may be close enough to the
target to produce undesired interactions. Fig. 2 shows the
energy that reaches the target via a direct path D and an
indirect path reflected by the ground of length S1 + S2. By
summing up the contributions, ones get [3].
(3)
where is the reflection coefficient of the ground, k is the
wave number, D is the direct path length, I is the indirect
path length, o is the amplitude of the targets RCS

Fig. 3. A sphere above (a) and penetrating (b) an infinite perfect

conducting plane [8].

TABLE I. Peak values of RCS obtained by the simulation of the

sphere and the square flat plate for horizontal (h. pol.) and vertical
polarizations (v. pol.) above and penetrating the infinite conducting
plane.

Normalized
Height
0.95
0.90
0.75
0.60
0.50
0.40
0.30
0.15
0.00
0.12
0.25
0.50
1.00
2.00
3.00
5.00
7.50

Sphere
H. Pol.
48.12
37.79
11.55
3.00
0.55
6.64
6.49
6.54
7.41
6.21
7.06
5.86
6.30
6.16
6.63
5.77
6.41

Normalized RCS (dB)

Sphere Flat plate Flat plate
V. Pol. H. Pol. V. Pol.
29.78
36.47
18.84
21.11
23.71
14.63
11.09
9.89
6.38
4.39
5.91
2.21
2.92
4.06
0.20
5.86
1.60
2.37
6.14
1.78
1.10
6.89
1.10
4.61
8.36
1.92
5.95
5.67
2.86
5.85
6.79
3.84
5.73
5.69
4.43
5.82
6.38
5.20
5.76
6.34
5.65
5.68
6.76
5.77
5.57
6.35
5.79
5.12
6.84
5.79
5.17

Fig. 5 shows the non normalized radar cross section of

the sphere with vertical polarization at several heights from
the reference plane.

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The normalized RCS values from Table I are plotted as a
function of the normalized height for both horizontal and
vertical polarizations in Fig. 6 and Fig. 7, respectively.
Figs. 6 and 7 suggest that the RCS reduction due to the
penetration of the objects in the conducting plane is subject
to a similar behavior for the analyzed conditions. Without
going into this subject, due to the few case studies, the
simulated data from Table I were modeled with third order
polynomial equations for the analyzed objects with both
polarizations as they penetrate the conducting plane

Fig. 6. Normalized RCS from the sphere and the square flat plate,
relative to the normalized height of the conducting plane, for
horizontal polarization.
Fig. 4. Radar cross section of a flat plate relative a perfect
conducting plane (black free space, red 0.95, orange 0.9, pink
0.5, green 0 and blue 2 heights relative to square plate length).

Fig. 5. Radar cross section of a sphere relative a perfect conducting

plane. (red free space, green 0m, orange - 0.5, light blue 0.6, lilac
-0,75, blue 1 and pink 5 heights relative to sphere diameter)

Fig. 7. Normalized RCS from the sphere and the square flat plate,
relative to the normalized height of the conducting plane, for
vertical polarization.

(4)

(5)

(6)

The normalized RCS were modeled by simple equations

for each object as a function of its relative height to the
conducting plane. The initial simulations using two perfect
conductor objects with simple geometries (square flat plate
and sphere) give a first insight into how the RCS of these
objects is reduced as they penetrate the ground plane. Future
work will deal with the analysis of complex objects on
imperfect conducting planes, aiming at the estimation of the
RCS from a real ship at seawater with low computational
burden.

(7)
REFERENCES
where RCSsh is the normalized RCS in dB for the sphere with
horizontal polarization, RCSsv is the normalized RCS for
sphere with vertical polarization, RCSph is the normalized
RCS for the square flat plate with horizontal polarization,
and RCSpv is the normalized RCS for the square flat plate
with vertical polarization. is the normalized height of the
objects above the conducting plane. The linear equations
were used to model the behavior of the objects above the
plane.

V. CONCLUSION
Radar cross section of objects such as a sphere and a
square flat plate in optical region has its maximum values
predicted by formulas derived from geometrical and
physical optics. When an infinite conducting plane is
present, there is an interaction that occurs between targets
and ground, which increases the total peak radar cross
section of the target. We have simulated the RCS from
targets in the presence of an infinite conducting plane, when
the targets are partially immersed in the conducting plane.
We were interested in the RCS at low elevation angles.

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