A NOTE ON SELECTION OF AN ATMOSPHERIC REFRACTIVITY MODEL FOR RADAR RANGE-HEIGHT-ANGLE CHARTS

Abstract

Work during the past few years by Bauer et al. of MIT Lincoln Laboratory and Bean and Thayer of the NBS Central Radio Propagation Laboratory (CRPL) has established the superiority of a negative-exponential model of the atmospheric radio refractivity vs height function, compared to the linearly decreasing refractivity assumed by the well-known 4/3-earth's-radius method, of accounting for ray bending. However, various values of the zero-altitude refractivity and the exponential constant may be used in the exponential model. For many purposes, such as plotting radar coverage on a range-height-chart, a standard assumption for the atmospheric refraction, corresponding to fixed values of these constants, is desirable. Various factors relevant to selection of such a standard are discussed. A chart and table of ray-path range-height values are presented.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 24, 1961
Accession Number
AD0255953

Entities

People

  • L.v. Blake

Organizations

  • United States Naval Research Laboratory

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Altimetry
  • Altitude
  • Atmospheres
  • Atmospheric Refraction
  • Computer Programs
  • Computers
  • Electromagnetic Wave Propagation
  • Elevation
  • Engineering
  • Low Altitude
  • Low Elevation
  • Military Research
  • Radar
  • Refractive Index
  • Sea Level
  • Standards
  • United States

Readers

  • Radar Systems Engineering.
  • Regression Analysis.
  • Wave Propagation and Nonlinear Chaotic Dynamics.