Accession Number:

AD0743959

Title:

Scattering of HF Radio Waves by a Spherical Electron Cloud

Descriptive Note:

Corporate Author:

AIR FORCE CAMBRIDGE RESEARCH LABS HANSCOM AFB MA

Personal Author(s):

• Klein, Milton M.

Report Date:

1971-08-16

Pagination or Media Count:

12.0

Abstract:

Numerical and analytic solutions in the ray-optics region have been obtained for the scattering of HF radio waves by a spherical electron cloud with a Gaussian distribution of electron density in the radial direction. The results show that a highly overdense or hard cloud has a wide range of backscatter angles for which the cross section is almost constant with a value close to that of an equivalent conducting sphere critical radius size. A slightly overdense or soft sphere has a much narrower range of almost constant cross section whose value is proportional to the fourth power of the critical radius and considerably below that of an equivalent conducting sphere.

Descriptors:

• *ATMOSPHERIC SOUNDING
• ELECTRON DENSITY
• HIGH FREQUENCY
• PLASMAS(PHYSICS)
• RADIO TRANSMISSION
• RADIO WAVES
• SCATTERING
• SPHERES

Subject Categories:

• Atmospheric Physics
• Radiofrequency Wave Propagation

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE