Abstract
MEASUREMENTS on the polarization of radio waves reflected from meteorological precipitation are sometimes handicapped by limitations of the investigating radar, and this is particularly so in the case of so-called circularly polarized radars. In practice, all radars radiate an elliptically polarized wave, and it can be shown that a perfectly spherical target will appear to produce two orthogonally polarized circular components differing in magnitude by 40 dB. if the voltage ellipticity ratio of the radiated wave is 0.99, and by 20 dB. if the ellipticity ratio is 0.9. This sets a limit to the accuracy obtainable in field measurements.
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References
Browne, I. C., and Robinson, N. P., Nature, 170, 1078 (1952).
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HUNTER, I. Polarization of Radar Echoes from Meteorological Precipitation. Nature 173, 165–166 (1954). https://doi.org/10.1038/173165b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/173165b0
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