The scattering of electromagnetic waves by conductors of linear extent comparable with the wavelength

The scattering of plane electromagnetic waves by conductors limited in linear dimensions to one or two wavelengths is treated in terms of the spherical-transmission line. By expressing the boundary conditions at the surface of the conductor in spherical-polar coordinates, the amplitudes and phases of the physically significant outgoing waves can be systematically deduced to represent the entire scattered field. This method enables one to obtain the angular distribution of the scattered field and thus provides results for bistatic as well as monostatic radar cross sections. The analysis that has been worked out is not presented in detail. This exposition is devoted only to noting the basic ideas of the method and to indicating the variety of computing methods for fitting the boundary conditions to the limited number of spherical harmonics necessary to represent the scattered field effectively.