Evaluation of analytical based HF propagation predictions in mid-latitude areas

摘要

The ionospheric propagation of HF radio waves is influenced by the state of the ionosphere and the Earth's magnetic field. The theoretical solutions developed to enable propagation predictions for HF channels include analytical, ray tracing and mixed analytic-ray tracing models. The present work aims to evaluate the accuracy of an analytical propagation prediction model for NVIS, medium-range and long haul HF channels. The tests conducted to this end consisted of comparisons between analytical, ray tracing and sounding results for the three representative types of channels. The comparison parameters considered throughout the paper were the opening and closing (break out) moments of the HF channels and the hours in between, defined as hours the channels were technically functional. The three evaluations presented in the paper have demonstrated the ability of the analytical algorithm to perform opening and closing time predictions for HF channels with errors of less than 15 minutes.