Bistatic Reflections
Applet Notes:
The applet plots the contours of constant time delay and contours of constant RCS received power from bistatically separated transmitting and receiving stations.
Transmitter power, reflector RCS, and received power are adjustable to check on the detection and visibility of reflecting objects in line-of-sight situations.
Once the radar and ESM parameters have been set up, the red plot displays contours of constant target returns.
By using the excess time delay scrollbar to overlay the blue time delay plot on the red target return plot, the time delay corresponding to the plot crossing points is determined.
Moving the mouse in range-range space displays the mouse x-axis and y-axis positions relative to the axes’ zero.
User Notes:
Note that with small target cross sections, two groups appear, on roughly a circle, one local to the radar transmitter and the other local to the ESM receiver.
The applet shows that if the radar-to-ESM spacing is small significant radar scatter returns can generate pseudoradars from all directions out to similar ranges
as if the radar and ESM were colocated. However, the differential path delay, which varies along the constant RCS contours, is always less than the colocated case.
If the radar-ESM spacing greatly exceeds the target detection range when the radar and ESM are colocated, then only scattering targets local to the radar and near the ESM
are important. Returns from scatterers near the radar will always be indicated with close-in bearings; some within the ESM receiver recovery time.
The bulk of these are illuminated when the radar sidelobes are directed towards the ESM receiver.
The highest amplitude reflections, independent of reflection object size, dominate in areas both close to the radar and close to the ESM DF receiver.