Analytical Model of Electromagnetic Waves Propagation and Location of Inclined Plasma Layers Using Occultation Data

Abstract—An analytical model for the description of the electromag-netic waves propagation in a layered medium consisting of sectors hav-ing the locally spherical symmetric distributions of refractivity is in-troduced. Model presents analytical expressions for the phase path and refractive attenuation of electromagnetic waves. Influence of the inclined ionospheric layers is a cause of the ionospheric interference in the trans-ionospheric communication satellite-to-satellite or satellite-to-Earth links. It follows from the analytical model that the identifica-tion of the inclined ionospheric layers contributions and measurements of their location and parameters may be fulfilled by use of compara-tive analysis of the amplitude variations and the eikonal acceleration