Brief review on PE method application to propagation channel modeling in sea environment

Abstract

This work provides an introduction to one of the most widely used advanced methods for wave propagation modeling, the Parabolic Equation (PE) method, with emphasis on its application to tropospheric radio propagation in coastal and maritime regions. The assumptions of the derivation, the advantages and drawbacks of the PE, the numerical methods for solving it, and the boundary and initial conditions for its application to the tropospheric propagation problem are briefly discussed. More details are given for the split-step Fourier-transform (SSF) solution of the PE. The environmental input to the PE, the methods for tropospheric refractivity profiling, their accuracy, limitations, and the average refractivity modeling are also summarized. The reported results illustrate the application of finite element (FE) based and SSF-based solutions of the PE for one of the most difficult to treat propagation mechanisms, yet of great significance for the performance of radars and communications links working in coastal and maritime zones -the tropospheric ducting mechanism. Recent achievements, some unresolved issues and ongoing developments related to further improvements of the PE method application to the propagation channel modeling in sea environment are highlighted.

Applying the Parabolic Equation to Tropospheric Groundwave Propagation: A review of recent achievements and significant milestones

“…After 30 years of development, the research on the PE method in tropospheric groundwave propagation modeling [37], [55], [114] has gradually matured. As shown in Figure 7, the framework of the tropospheric groundwave propagation study field takes the PE method as its core.…”

Evaporation Duct Retrieval Using Changes in Radar Sea Clutter Power Versus Receiving Height

“…These rays are also trapped for an extended range. Three typical types of atmospheric ducts exist: evaporation, surface-based, and elevated ducts [20,21]. Evaporation ducts are created by the rapid decrease in moisture immediately adjacent to the ocean surface, and are nearly permanent propagation mechanisms for the radar waves propagating over the ocean surface.…”

Duct occurrence and characteristics for Bulgarian Black sea shore derived from ECMWF data

“…Tropospheric ducting causes multipath propagation leading to short-term fading, inter-symbol interference and increase in signal data bit-error-rate in mobile communications, (Asiyo and Afullo, 2013;Hansen et al, 2011;Kerans et al, 2002;Lee, 1993). Those effects give rise to increasing interest in detailed studies of the coastal environment thus ensuring better modeling of propagation phenomena to increase the ability of communication and radar systems performance forecasts, (Claverie and Hurtaud, 2014;Dinc and Akan, 2015;Sirkova, 2012a).…”