ST05-A002
Full-Wave Modelling of Electromagnetic Wave Propagation in Ionospheric Plasma
Nikolai LEHTINEN1#+, Timothy BELL1, Morris B COHEN1, Umran INAN1
1Stanford University, United States
#Corresponding author: nleht@stanford.edu +Presenter

We present results of VLF wave propagation modelling using Stanford Full Wave Method (Stanford FWM). This method is capable of calculating monochromatic electromagnetic waves in an arbitrary stationary anisotropic plane-stratified medium with arbitrary dielectric permittivity and magnetic permeability tensors, given in each layer of the medium. The electromagnetic radiation may be emitted by an arbitrary configuration of harmonically varying currents. In application to trans-ionospheric propagation of VLF waves, a comparison of calculated wave field from VLF transmitters with satellite data showed a significant additional attenuation due to ionospheric irregularities which may be caused by VLF heating. Beside application to wave generation and propagation in planar stratified media, the full-wave technique has also been applied to scattering on strong ionospheric disturbances (by the use of the method of moments) and to propagation in curvilinear geometries, in order to include the effects of the finite radius of the Earth.