Bibliography On The Theory Of Diffraction And Propagation Of Radio Waves

This bibliography comprises a non-exhaustive compilation of over 1400 references to the world's literature in the ionosphere with special emphasis on its effect on reflection, refraction or propagation of electromagnetic waves. The frequencies involved are usually in the low frequency or long wave bands in contrast to those (UHF, VHF and SHF) involved in tropospheric propagation investigations although the pulsed technique at vertical or slant incidence makes use of a wide range of frequencies.

This bibliography emphasizes tropospheric scattering of radio waves by turbulence-induced inhomogeneities of the dielectric constant (local wave velocity in the atmosphere). Papers on related topics such as turbulence theory and measurements, statistics, instrumentation and some papers on sound scattering are also included. This bibliography covers material up to about January 1960.

This book is concerned with the ionosphere and the magnetosphere, and the theory of their effect on radio waves. It includes accounts of some mathematical topics now widely used in this study, particularly W. K. B. approximations, Airy integral functions and integration by steepest descents. The subject is divided into ray theory and full wave theory. Ray theory is useful for high frequencies when the ionosphere is treated as a horizonally stratified medium. The discussion of the magnetosphere, whose structure is more complicated, includes an account of whistlers and ion cyclotron whistlers. The book has been planned both for final year undergraduates and as a reference book for research. It is suitable as a course book on radio propagation for students of physics or electrical engineering or mathematics. Some of the topics are presented from an elementary viewpoint so as to help undergraduates new to the subject. The later parts are more advanced. Because the subject is so large and has seen many important recent advances, some topics have had to be treated briefly, but there is a full bibliography with about 600 references.