AN EXPERIMENTAL-METHOD FOR DETERMINING THE SCATTERING CROSS-SECTION OF ELONGATED OBJECTS

A method for determining the scattering characteristics of elongated o bjects is developed. It is based on coherent acoustic measurements wit h a multiple-element antenna array in the near held. The scattering ch aracteristics in the far field of the free space are determined by sim ple calculations. The use of the optical theorem enables one to determ ine the integral scattering cross section by measuring on a line in th e object shadow, including the low frequency range where such measurem ents by other methods are complicated by low signal-to-noise ratios. T he accuracy of the method is discussed. Measurements demonstrated that the method is a promising practical proposition.