Laser backscatter characteristics of materials of interest in Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD)
Abstract
A series of measurements were conducted on laser backscatter characteristics of materials of interest in Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD). The data taken was reduced for the purposes of describing the reflectance of reentry vehicles (RV), decoy, and tank fragment materials. As evidenced by the experimental data, a wide variety of scattering was encountered from BMD targets. Specifically, whether or not the material was metallic, painted, sealed, overcoated, surface roughed, or non-metallic produced scattering that ranged from diffraction limited (so-called specular) to perfectly Lambertian (so-called diffuse). The significant impact of the physical characteristics (type of material/finish) of a BMD target on its backscatter has been experimentally determined by this study. At this time, both material characteristics and shape appear equally important in determining the laser backscatter characteristics of BMD targets.
- Publication:
-
NASA STI/Recon Technical Report N
- Pub Date:
- July 1974
- Bibcode:
- 1974STIN...7512323D
- Keywords:
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- Antimissile Defense;
- Backscattering;
- Lasers;
- Metals;
- Radar Targets;
- Reentry Vehicles;
- Lasers and Masers