Theory for the Excitation and Propagation of Electromagnetic Waves Guided by an Elevated Refractive Index Discontinuity in the Troposphere

Abstract

We present an analysis for waves guided by a smooth concave layer in the troposphere. The modal expansion includes both ground wave and Earth detached modes. It is shown that the excitation of the Earth detached modes by a ground based source is very weak. However, there is a possibility that these modes may be excited by a nonuniformity of the layer structure.