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Information about Corner Reflector

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Working principle of a corner reflector
A corner reflector is a retroreflector consisting of three mutually perpendicular, intersecting flat surfaces, which reflects electromagnetic waves back towards the source. The three intersecting surfaces often have square shapes. This is also known as a corner cube.

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Buoy in San Diego Harbor. Note metal plates near the top configured at right angles to reflect radar signals.
Such devices are often used as radar targets or markers and are often employed on ships and, especially, lifeboats. These normally consist of three conducting metallic surfaces or screens perpendicular to one another. In optics, corner reflectors typically consist of three mirrors or reflective prisms which return an incident light beam in the opposite direction. Arrays of such retroreflectors are used in bicycle reflectors, automobile tail lights and as targets for laser range finding. Microscopic corner reflector structures can be incorporated into reflective paint for increased visibility at night, although retroreflective spherical beads are more common for this purpose.

A directional antenna using two mutually intersecting conducting flat surfaces is also considered to be a type of corner reflector.

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triangular corner reflector as cut of a cube


Corner reflectors can also occur accidentally. Tower blocks with balconies are often accidental corner reflectors for sound and return a distinctive echo to an observer making a sharp noise, such as a hand clap, nearby. Similarly, in radar interpretation, an object that has multiple reflections from smooth surfaces produces a radar return of greater magnitude than might be expected from the physical size of the object.

NASA has put a corner reflector on the Moon, for use in laser interferometry to measure the Moon's orbit more precisely than was possible before. The reflector was hand machined by Silicon Valley engineering manager Wayne Rosing, who also grinds telescope mirrors.
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A corner reflector for radar testing

See also

  • Cat's eye reflector

References

retroreflector is a device that reflects a wave front back along a vector that is parallel to but opposite in direction from the angle of incidence. This is unlike a mirror, which does that only if the mirror is exactly perpendicular to the wave front.
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Electromagnetic (EM) radiation is a self-propagating wave in space with electric and magnetic components. These components oscillate at right angles to each other and to the direction of propagation, and are in phase with each other.
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Radar is a system that uses electromagnetic waves to identify the range, altitude, direction, or speed of both moving and fixed objects such as aircraft, ships, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain.
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ship is a large watercraft capable of offshore navigation. Ships may be operated by:
  • Governments (military, rescue, research, transportation)
  • Private companies and institutions (transportation, offshore resources, research)
  • Individuals (large yachts, research).

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lifeboat is a boat designed to save the lives of people in trouble at sea. The term is used for vessels carried by ships to allow passengers and crew to escape in an emergency.
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Optics (ὀπτική appearance or look in Ancient Greek) is a branch of physics that describes the behavior and properties of light and the interaction of light with matter.
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mirror is an object with a surface that has good specular reflection; that is, it is smooth enough to form an image. The most familiar type of mirror is the plane mirror, which has a flat surface.
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prism is a transparent optical element with flat, polished surfaces that refract light. The exact angles between the surfaces depend on the application. The traditional geometrical shape is that of a triangular prism with a triangular base and rectangular sides, and in colloquial
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Light is electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength that is visible to the eye (visible light). In a scientific context, the word "light" is sometimes used to refer to the entire electromagnetic spectrum.
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Beam may refer to:
  • Beam theory, Beam Theory a means of calculating the load-carrying and deflection characteristics of beams.
  • Beam (nautical), the most extreme width (or breadth) of a nautical vessel, or a point alongside the ship at the mid-point of its length

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racing bicycle is built using lightweight, shaped aluminium tubing and carbon fiber stays and forks. It sports a drop handlebar and thin tires and wheels for efficiency and aerodynamics.
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automobile (from Greek auto, self and Latin mobile moving, a vehicle that moves itself rather than being moved by another vehicle or animal) or motor car (usually shortened to just car) is a wheeled passenger vehicle that carries its own motor.
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laser is a mechanical device that produces coherent radiation. The term "laser" is an acronym: Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.
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retroreflector is a device that reflects a wave front back along a vector that is parallel to but opposite in direction from the angle of incidence. This is unlike a mirror, which does that only if the mirror is exactly perpendicular to the wave front.
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A directional antenna is an antenna which radiates greater power in one or more directions allowing for increased performance on transmit and receive and reduced interference from unwanted sources.
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worldwide view of the subject.
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A tower block, block of flats, or apartment block, is a multi-unit high-rise apartment building.
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Balcony (from Italian balcone, scaffold; cf. High German balcho, beam, balk; probably cognate with Persian term بالكانه bālkāneh or its older variant
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National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA logo
Motto: For the Benefit of All[1]

NASA seal
Agency overview
Formed 29 July 1958

Headquarters Washington D.C.

Annual Budget $16.
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Moon  

The Moon as seen by an observer on Earth
Orbital characteristics
Periapsis: 363,104 km
0.0024 AU
Apoapsis: 405,696 km
0.0027 AU
Semi-major axis: 384,399 km
0.
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Wayne Rosing has been involved as a key player in several landmark projects in the computing industry since the late 1970s. Gaining experience as an engineering manager at DEC and Data General in the 1970s, he became a director of engineering at Apple Computer in the early 1980s.
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Federal Standard 1037C, entitled Telecommunications: Glossary of Telecommunication Terms is a United States Federal Standard, issued by the General Services Administration pursuant to the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949, as amended.
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MIL-STD-188 is a series of U.S. military standards relating to telecommunications.

Purpose

Faced with “past technical deficiencies in telecommunications systems and equipment and software…that were traced to basic inadequacies in the application of
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The Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms is a compendium of terminology used by the United States Department of Defense (DOD).

It sets forth standard US military and associated terminology to encompass the joint activity of the Armed
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