Bistatic radar scattering by randomly oriented wires

Formulas and numerical results are presented for the bistatic-radar scattering cross section of an atmosphere of randomly oriented conducting wires. The work is based on the Stokes parameter description of the general radiation field, so that the polarization of transmitter and receiver antenna arrays can be chosen in any desired combination. The wires in the atmosphere can be of arbitrary length, and the second order expressions due to Einarsson are used for the cross section of a single wire. The average over wire orientations is generally evaluated using a Monte Carlo method, but for wires that are very long compared to the wavelength, an approximate analytical averaging method can be used. For long wires, the final results show strong scattering in the forward direction for most antenna polarization combinations, and for short wires, the scattering is more nearly isotropic.