Decomposition of radar target based on the scattering matrix obtained by FM-CW radar

One of the polarimetric radar applications is classification or identification of targets making use of the scattering matrix. This paper presents a decomposition scheme of a scattering matrix into three elementary scattering matrices in the circular polarization basis. The elementary components are a sphere, a diplane (dihedral corner reflector), and a helix. Since a synthetic aperture FM-CW radar provides scattering matrix through a polarimetric measurement, this decomposition scheme was applied to the actual raw data, although the matrix is resulted from a swept frequency measurement. Radar imaging experiments at the Ku band (14.5-15.5 GHz) were carried out to obtain a total of 64 X 64 scattering matrices in an imaging plane, using flat plates, corner reflectors and wires as elementary radar targets for classification. It is shown that the decomposition scheme has been successfully carried out to distinguish these targets and that the determination of rotation angle of line target is possible if the scattering matrix is classified as a wire.