Refraction and Attenuation in Troposphere

Abstract

Where two dissimilar media form a common boundary, the different refractive indices of the media will cause the signal direction to diverge from its path if the incident direction is not normal to the boundary. This is called refraction. The average refractive index of a medium is called the bulk refractive index, and it affects the average direction of the electromagnetic energy. In addition to changing the direction of travel of an electromagnetic signal and/or causing scintillations, a medium can both extract energy from a signal passing through it and alter the orientation sense of the electric vector (the polarization) of the signal as it passes through. The loss of energy is called attenuation, and the change in polarization sense is generally referred to as depolarization.