An Analysis and Re-Evaluation of the Role of Horizontal Drift in Producing Fading in Tropospheric Scatter Propagation

摘要

The results of the work to follow contradict the widespread notion that fading of the received signal in tropospheric scatter propagation is caused mainly by the turbulent motions of the atmosphere. A detailed analysis shows that the component of horizontal drift perpendicular to the path of transmission is considerably more effective in giving rise to a spread in the spectrum of the received frequencies than has been realized previously. The conclusion is drawn that on tropospheric trans-horizon paths much of the signal fading must be caused by the component of the horizontal drift of the atmosphere perpendicular to the path.