Tropospheric Propagation (above 300 MHz)

CONTENTS
What is Atmosphere??! Structure of Atmosphere Definition of Troposphere Tropospheric Propagation (above 300 MHz)

What is Atmosphere??!

The atmosphere of Earth is a layer of gases surrounding the planet Earth that is retained by Earth's gravity. The atmosphere protects life on Earth by absorbing ultra violet solar radiation, warming the surface through heat retention (green house effect ), and reducing temperature extremes between day and night.

Structure Of Atmosphere

The atmosphere, which broken into three major regions:

Atmospheric regions

Troposphere

Stratosphere

Ionosphere

Diagram
UV / visible Sun-light Ionosphere Stratosphere Infra-red radiation

Ozone layer

Troposphere EARTH

Troposphere

It is the region of the atmosphere within 16 km from the earths surface. This is the layer of the atmosphere in which we live.

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It is that portion of the earth atmosphere from earths surface up to : a height of 8 to 10 km at polar latitude, 10 to 12 km at moderate latitude and up to 16 to 18 km at the equator.

Properties
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With increase of height, the percentage of the gas components remains almost constant. The water vapour components sharply decreases with height.

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The temp. decreases with increases of height at the rate of 6.5 per km and reaches at about -50C at the upper boundary.
The region next higher to troposphere is the stratosphere, where the temp. almost remains constant to -50C.

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5. The dielectric constant of the atmosphere is slightly greater than unity at the earths surface & decreases to unity at grater than heights where air density approaches zero.
6. Thus, the troposphere is an inhomogeneous dielectric medium whose refractive index varies with height. n = c / v = r r = dielectric constant of the media n = refractive index c = velocity of light v = velocity of the wave in the media 7. Due to change in refractive index in it the wave velocity changes.

Tropospheric propagation (above 300 MHz)

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The tropospheric is a region of the atmosphere adjacent to the earth, extending up to about 16 kilometers. The wave propagation beyond the line-of-sight is possible using this mode of propagation. The several mechanisms responsible are classified as: Diffraction Normal refraction Abnormal reflection and refraction Tropospheric scatter

Diffraction : When the waves are traveling over a plane ground surface meet some obstacle then the waves do not stop at the obstacle, they bend over it and proceed. ex: the closely spaced tracks on a CD or DVD act as a diffraction grating to form the familiar rainbow pattern we see when looking at a disk
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Incident waves

Diffracted Rays

Example
Diffracted Rays Transmitting antenna

Receiving antenna

2) Refraction : When the waves pass from one propagating media to a medium having different density, the direction of the wave changes.

3) Abnormal reflection and refraction : It is a phenomenon relating to the wavelength of reflected light, whether in x-rays, interactions with metals, or fluids.
Normal Incident waves Reflected waves

Reflecting surface

4) Tropospheric scatter :

It is possible to communicate over long distances by means of tropospheric scatter. This phenomenon is due to irregularities in the atmosphere.

Tropospheric scatter is a method of transmitting and receiving microwave radio signals over considerable distances often up to 300 km.
Now consider a radio wave is transmitted into the troposphere.

This radio wave when meets the turbulence in the troposphere, the velocity of the wave is changed. This causes a small amount of energy to be scattered. The scattered rays in the direction of receiving antenna will be responsible for communication beyond the horizon. The turbulence that causes the scattering can be visualized as a relay station located above the horizon. It receives the transmitted energy and reradiates it in the forward direction to some point beyond the line of sight distance.

The magnitude of the received signal depends on the number of turbulences causing scatter in the desired direction and the gain of the receiving antenna. ex : point to point communication i.e. in broadcasting system.