Anomalous microwave propagation through atmospheric ducts

A multidisciplinary approach that examines the effects of anomalous tropospheric refraction on electromagnetic microwaves is presented. Effects such as surface ducting have been observed for decades, but the ability to describe detailed features such as propagation loss has been lacking. A code has been developed to deal with atmospheres that have both vertically and horizontally changing inhomogeneities of refractive index. Information derived from this approach is used to predict and analyze errors caused by transmission fading, duct trapping, and duct leakage in many microwave systems.