Análise da propagação troposférica em meios inomogêneos bidimensionais marítimos utilizando traçado de raios e dados meteorológicos de boias oceanográficas

Abstract

The demand growth for land-based telecommunications services can also be found in maritime environments by users on board ships, whether civilian or military. In these environments, a phenomenon known as the evaporation duct influences electromagnetic propagation in the troposphere, providing point-to-point communication at distances beyond the radio horizon. This work uses the ray- tracing technique to analyze the behavior of electromagnetic waves in these media. An algorithm capable of tracing rays and determining electric field amplitudes and phases in two-dimensional inhomogeneous media was developed, given a map of modified refractivity M. From these maps, the algorithm calculates the vertical gradients of M, which can vary along the path, and traces rays from the transmitting antenna. As an application, in addition to scenarios with evaporation ducts, M maps were estimated based on meteorological data provided by radiosondes launched in the Brazilian coast. The results obtained were compared with those provided by the Advanced Refractive Effects Prediction System (AREPS) software, based on the numerical solution of parabolic equation. This work also presents statistical results of evaporation ducts in the Brazilian coast, based on meteorological data provided by oceanographic buoys of Programa Nacional de Boias (PNBOIA). For this, the Paulus-Jeske algorithm, which estimates the height of the evaporation ducts, is used with small changes.