Simulated propagation effects on transionospheric radio waves

An ionospheric model perturbed by nuclear explosions is constructed by superposing three bubbles. Each bubble has a horizontal structure similar to that measured in situ in a natural ionosphere but displaced relative to each other by a small horizontal distance to simulate 50 km to 100 km vertical correlation distance. The propagation effects of this model ionosphere on the wave are obtained by solving the parabolic equation numerically for the complex amplitude. The results show that large amplitude and phase fluctuations are obtained at gigafrequencies and some scintillations are obtained even at a frequency as high as 15 GHz. Properties of amplitude and phase scintillations are studied.