The distortion of electromagnetic pulses undergoing total internal reflection in a stratified troposphere

The treatment of total internal reflection of electromagnetic pulses at the sharp boundary of two homogeneous half-spaces is extended to cover the case of total internal reflection in a stratified nonionized half-space. It is indicated that any inhomogeneity of the reflecting medium perturbs each harmonic spectral component of the reflected pulse in phase and amplitude as both the real and the imaginary parts of the reflection coefficient actually become functions of the frequency.