Atmospheric Refraction and the Effective Earth's Radius: Problems and Pitfalls
Abstract
The derivation of a transformation to compensate for refractivity in the earth's atmosphere is obtained through the use of ray tracing and differential geometry. The effective earth's radius, which is the classical method to compensate for the ray curvature as an electromagnetic wave propagates through the earth's atmosphere, is also derived and shown to be invalid since it does not serve its intended purpose -- namely, to conformally transform curved rays into straight lines. A brief review of atmospheric radio refractivity and ray tracing is presented and the differences between the refraction compensation transformation and the effective earth's radius are demonstrated.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1977
- Accession Number
- ADA075555
Entities
People
- William M. Cornette
Organizations
- Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake