| Abstract: | In this paper, we develop further the analytical and numerical method of solving three-dimensional problems in the theory
of radio wave propagation, including three-dimensional local inhomogeneities (ionospheric disturbances or Earth’s surface
irregularities). To model the Earth-ionosphere waveguide, we use the surface impedance concept, by which the irregularity
extending beyond one waveguide wall has an arbitrary smooth shape, and its surface can be described by the impedance. In the
scalar approximation, this problem is reduced to a two-dimensional integral equation for the irregularity surface, which,
by asymptotic (kr ≫ 1) integration over the coordinate transverse to the propagation path (with allowance for terms of the
order of (kr)−1), is reduced to a one-dimensional integral equation, in which the integration contour is the linear contour of the irregularity.
The equation is solved numerically, combining the inversion of a Volterra integral operator and successive approximations.
By reducing the computer times, this method enables one to study both small-scale and large-scale irregularities. The results
of numerical simulation of radio wave propagation in the presence of a powerful three-dimensional ionospheric disturbance
are presented as an example.
State University, St. Petersburg, Russia. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 41, No.
5, pp. 588–604, May, 1998. |
