3 - Refraction and Spherical Earth

Refraction
and
Spherical Earth’s Surface
Effects
Waves Over Spherical Earth
• The flat earth approximation is good only for short distances.
• The maximum distance at which the Flat earth approximation is
correct is given by,
Dmax = 50 / f1/3 Miles

• The effect of spherical earth on ground wave propagation can
be summarized as follows:
1. It prevents surface waves from reaching receiving antennas

by a straight line path.
2. Surface waves which reach the receiver, does that by
diffraction around earth or by refraction in the lower
atmosphere.
Maximum Line-of-Sight Distance
The main question in the study of radio wave propagation over the actual
spherical earth's surface is whether or not the transmitting and the receiving
antennas are within line-of-sight of each other.
Consider a transmitting antenna elevated at height h1 from earth and the

receiving antenna is on ground.
where a is the earth's radius, a = 6.37 x 106 m.

Maximum Line-of-Sight-Distance Two Antennas
TROPOSPHERIC WAVE PROPAGATION
• The troposphere is the atmosphere adjacent to the earth
surface extending up to about 10 Km. In this region clouds
are formed.
• The temperature in the troposphere decreases with height at
a rate of about 6.5°C per Km to a value of about -50°C at its
upper boundary.
Normal refraction in the troposphere:
• Normal refraction occurs due to the gradual decrease of the
refraction index "n" of the atmosphere.
• This causes the bending of direct wave paths and thus
propagation is along curved paths instead of straight lines.
• The refractive index n of the troposphere has an average
value of approximately 1.0003 at the earth's surface.
• Thus, we usually deal with another quantity N, called the
refractivity,
Refractivity variation with height
The variation of N with height. It is seen that N has an

almost constant gradient, given by,
in the standard atmospheric conditions, known as the

standard atmosphere.
Radius of curvature due to tropospheric refraction
Effective Earth's Radius
To simplify the analysis of wave propagation over curved paths, the concept
of effective earth's radius is used.
This value of effective earth's radius is taken such that rays propagate in
straight lines instead of curved paths, i.e.
From analytical geometry, the relative curvature is defined as the difference

of the reciprocal of the radius of curvature.
In the normal case, the relative curvature is given by, 1/a -1IR. This must be
the same as in the case of straight line paths on effective earth, thus,
Using this value of effective earth radius, all previous analysis using straight
line rays can be applied to curved or refracted waves by replacing "a" by the
effective value "ae"
For example the maximum, line-of-sight distance with the effect of
tropospheric refraction is given by,
i.e. the line-of-sight range is increased due to refraction.

Abnormal or Super-Refraction, ( Ducting)
As the meteorological conditions changes, the refractive
index may vary from the standard atmosphere condition
described above. Noting that ae depends on the slope dN/dh
we have the following different case of refraction:
Thus, large values of dN/dh are expected if
- de/dh increases negatively, or if

- dT/dh decreases
or even inverts from positive slope to negative, i.e. when "temperature

inversion" occurs.
The phenomenon of ducting is more effective near see coast areas and
deserts where temperature inversion can occur frequently.
Troposcatter Propagation
Turbulence in the atmosphere causes the scattering of
electromagnetic waves in the frequency range 100 -10,000 MHz.
Troposcatter links are based on this idea.
The scattering of waves occurs within the common volume of the

atmosphere occupied by the beams of the transmitting and
receiving antennas.
• Troposcatter links use very high power levels and very high
gain antennas.
• Usually parabolic reflectors with d >50 are used
• The received signal level is not constant it varies within 10 dbs.
This is due to the random variations of the scattering
processes.
• Such a random channel can be modeled as a Rayleigh fading
channel.
• To counteract the variable received signal levels, diversity
reception with two or more antennas widely separated from
other (~ 100 ) is used. Signal combination techniques are
used to select the stronger receiver signal among the diversity
antennas.
• The bandwidth of troposcatter links, is enough for T.V.
transmission over more than 200 miles. Narrow band
transmission is possible to more than 600 miles (~ 1000 Km),
for telephony and telegraph services.

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Refraction

Dmax = 50 / f1/3 Miles

1. It prevents surface waves from reaching receiving antennas

Consider a transmitting antenna elevated at height h1 from earth and the

where a is the earth's radius, a = 6.37 x 106 m.

The variation of N with height. It is seen that N has an

in the standard atmospheric conditions, known as the

From analytical geometry, the relative curvature is defined as the difference

i.e. the line-of-sight range is increased due to refraction.

- de/dh increases negatively, or if

or even inverts from positive slope to negative, i.e. when "temperature

The scattering of waves occurs within the common volume of the

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