AE33A-0282
Effects of Earth's curvature in full-wave modeling of VLF propagation
Linhai Qiu, Nikolai G. Lehtinen, Umran S. Inan
Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
We show how to include curvature in the full-wave finite element
approach to calculate ELF/VLF wave propagation in horizontally
stratified earth-ionosphere waveguide. A general curvilinear stratified
system is considered, and the numerical solutions of full-wave method in
curvilinear system are compared with the analytic solutions in the
cylindrical and spherical waveguides filled with an isotropic medium. We
calculate the attenuation and height gain for modes in the
Earth-ionosphere waveguide, taking into account the anisotropicity of
ionospheric plasma, for different assumptions about the Earth's
curvature, and quantify the corrections due to the curvature. The
results are compared with the results of previous models, such as LWPC,
as well as with ground and satellite observations, and show improved
accuracy compared with full-wave method without including the curvature
effect.