Premium
Statistical Variations in the Apparent Specular Component of Ionospherically Reflected Radio Waves
Author(s) -
Boys J. T.
Publication year - 1968
Publication title -
radio science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.371
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1944-799X
pISSN - 0048-6604
DOI - 10.1002/rds1968310984
Subject(s) - specular reflection , component (thermodynamics) , radio wave , physics , geology , rayleigh scattering , optics , thermodynamics , quantum mechanics
The specular component of an ionospherically reflected radio wave giving highly correlated signals between elements of an array of antennas is measured and found to vary in a way suggesting that it is Rayleigh distributed. Examples illustrating the rate at which variations occur are given and it becomes clear why averages over different periods may give quite dissimilar results. It is inferred that there is, strictly speaking, no specular component but a group of rays all coming from very similar directions.