On the far-zone distribution of a scattered field - A numerical experiment

The problem of determining the far-zone distribution of a scattered field is of practical importance in radio-sounding studies of the ionosphere. In the present paper an attempt is made to establish a criterion defining when and at what distances from the scattering medium it is permissible to use the normal distribution of the phase-quadrature component of the scattered field. As a first approximation to solving this problem, a numerical experiment was conducted to determine the domain of the applicability of the normal distribution of the phase-quadrature components of radiation that has passed through a one-dimensional phase screen for different values of the dispersion of phase fluctuations on the screen. It is shown that an increase in the phase-modulation depth on the screen produces an increase in the 'rate of normalization' of the scattered field, i.e., a decrease in the distance beginning with which the statistics of the phase-quadrature component is described by the normal distribution.