Estimation of surface curvatures from discrete data for applications to geometrical optics

Considers the problem of estimating the curvatures of a surface when the only given data consist of the position coordinates of a discrete set of points on the surface. This is commonly the nature of the data provided on the hulls of ships and other large structures. The formula for the radar cross section (RCS) for backscatter from a closed convex surface is given. This formula was obtained from geometrical optics