Numerical Analysis of Radar-Plasma-Signatures of a Sphere in a Mach 10 Hypersonic Wind Tunnel Flow

The radar signature of Reentry Vehicles (RV) changes substantially during the atmospheric reentry. This alteration is caused by the existence of plasma. The prediction of the plasma state is complex and requires some critical assumptions which must be validated. This validation is usually performed by an iteration between Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and wind tunnel experiments. This paper presents a feasibility study for radar measurements of reentry plasmas reproduced in hypersonic wind tunnels based on a combination of CFD and Electromagnetic (EM) Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) simulations.