Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008
The paper contains a theoretical discussion of the scattering by a ship of the wave sent out from a radar transmitter. An expression is derived for the power returned to the receiver of the radar installation, on the assumption that the ship is composed of a large number of scattering elements which scatter energy non-coherently. Calculations based on this expression are compared with the results of experiment and shown to be in good agreement as regards the variation of signal strength with range, provided that a suitable value for the effective radius of the earth (a quantity which changes with meteorological conditions) is taken.
An experiment is described in which the absolute level of the received signal from a ship was measured by comparing it with that from a metalized sphere flown from a balloon. The result was found to be in satisfactory agreement with theoretical expectations.