Further Investigations of the Amplitude Variations of Downcoming Wireless Waves

Experiments are described for measuring the lateral deviation of wireless waves after reflection from the E and F regions of the ionosphere. It was found that the greatest lateral deviation observed, 20° or more, was that due to the e region, and the least, about 0·5°, was due to the normal E region in the case of a distant transmitter. The time variation of amplitude of a reflected wave was found to be consistent with a random scattering at the ionosphere. In the theoretical discussion it is shown that changing horizontal irregularities, ion clouds, are a very important cause of fading. Values are calculated for the average fading periods which would result from the horizontal winds in the neighbourhood of the E region known to exist from other evidence. These calculated periods agree with the observed and it is inferred that horizontal winds are a very important cause of fading.