Propagation of Radio Waves Over a Nonuniform Layered Medium

Propagation of radio waves over the surface of a stratified medium with an overburden of arbitrarily varying depth is analyzed in terms of a complete local set of coupled wave amplitudes. The complete set consists of the surface wave and the radiation terms. To reduce the coupling between the component waves, the local modal expansion that is chosen reflects the varying characteristics of the surface wave structure. Comparisons with earlier solutions to somewhat idealized, related problems are given, together with a discussion of recent experimental results.