Chart for determining the effects of ionospheric tilts using an idealized model

Abstract

In st ud yin g t he t il ted ion osphere, i t is often useful to consider t he action of a n eq ui valen t re fl ecting mirror as a n approx imate substit u te for t he mor e complex ref ract in g layer of l' il'ctrons . Although t he an alogy is crude, it p ermi ts relatively eas.v co mpu tation of resuHs whi ch pr ovide in sight in to t he action of t he real ionosphere. Us ing t he mirror a nalogy, t he effect of a t il ted ionosp here on a rad io wave has bee n calculat ed for a wide range of ti lt a ngles a nd directions w it hou t approx im a tions. T hl' resul ts a re prese nted on eight charts, each of whic h is calculated for t.wo p ar t icu lar valu l's of the p arameters which m ust be fi xed prior to calculation (mirror h eigh t a nd the d istan ce from tran smitter to t he poin t on the ear th ben eath lhe mirror) . Examples o f chart usc an d impli cations for longra nge JI F transmission are a lso disc ussed.