Correction of numerical results in “ELF terrestrial radio wave field calculations with the zonal-harmonics series”

摘要

The presence of a numerical error in a previous publication is noted and the error source identified. However, the theoretical formulation is correct. Corrected numerical results are presented which favorably compare with results computed by other researchers. Also, theoretical results are produced using a predicted ionospheric profile of an upper atmosphere nuclear detonation. Finally, field attenuation for hypothetical two-layer ionospheric profiles is plotted as a function of lower-layer conductivity. It is seen that some hypothetical cases can exhibit high attenuation values in comparison to the normal-day's attenuation value. Some new theoretical expressions for the zonal-harmonics analytical formulation are exhibited, and the improvement expected in computational efficiency and in numerical precision by breakoff of the ground wave from the rest of the summation is discussed.