The combined effect of Faraday and squint rotation for an electronically scanned, satellite-borne radar

The average power received at a radar employing a single linear polarization is influenced by the polarization of the field incident upon and scattered by the target. It is well known that for a satellite-borne radar the ionosphere rotates the polarization of both the incident and scattered fields, thereby affecting the polarization of the field received back at the radar. This is known as the Faraday rotation effect. If the radar employs an electronically scanned antenna, the polarization of both the incident and received fields is also rotated by an amount that depends upon the look direction, which is not fixed. This scan-induced polarization change is referred to as squint rotation. To calculate the power received at such a radar it is necessary to consider the combined effects of Faraday and squint rotation. This is done for the case of a radar employing a horizontally polarized, electronically scanned antenna.