Reflection of Pulses From a Linearly Varying Ionosphere Model with a Vertical Magnetic Field

The reflection of a linearly polarized plane electromagnetic wave by an idealized cold‐plasma ionosphere model, with a constant vertical magnetic field, is examined. A linear electron density profile and a constant collision frequency are assumed. For vertical incidence, the exact time‐harmonic solution for the parallel and cross‐polarized reflected fields are expressible in terms of Airy functions. Then, using a numerical inverse Fourier transform, the impulse response of the model is obtained. It is shown that causality is satisfied for both the in‐polarized and the cross‐polarized component of the reflected transient wave. The cross‐polarized component owes its existence to the presence of the dc magnetic field.