Numerical-analytical method for calculating the refraction of radio waves in a chaotic upper atmosphere

Abstract

An operational method is proposed for calculating the refraction of decameter radio waves in a randomly-inhomogeneous upper atmosphere. The method is based on the numerical-analytical solution of stochastic equations of geometric optics. An integral expression is obtained for the dispersion of the refraction angle of a radio wave on the atmospheric path using the approximation of the perturbation method. For a quick calculation of the statistical moment of the refraction angle, the integral expression is reduced to an ordinary first-order differential equation. The joint numerical solution of the unperturbed ray equations and the equations for the statistical moment allows doing an operational estimate of beam width of radio waves arriving at the observation point. The results of numerical calculations of the standard deviations of the refraction angles of radio waves on paths of various lengths are presented.