Laser radar cross section (LRCS) is a target property. It can be conveniently used to calculate the expected echo signal amplitude when system parameters and the target’s distance are known. The LRCS is the product of three components: the actual area interacting with the laser beam (for targets smaller than the laser footprint), the reflectance of the target, and the directivity of the reflection. The directivity is quite low for diffusely reflecting targets, but very high for retro-reflecting target.
