Measurement, analysis and utilization of meteorological parameters for radio signal propagation modeling – tropospheric refraction

Abstract The paper deals with wave propagation in the troposphere and discusses practical estimates of the refractive index, which determines how much the path of radio-wave is bent, or refracted, in the troposphere. Refractive index (RI) is a function of relative air humidity, air temperature and air pressure while the tropospheric refractivity depends on their height profile. Based on balloon measurements in the Prague meteorological station and mast measurements at Kopisty meteorological station, statistical characteristics of RI are calculated and their sensitivity to changes in pressure, temperature and relative humidity is quantitatively estimated. The paper includes figures and tables that can be used to provide a basic estimate of RI for specified atmospheric properties given by temperature, pressure and relative humidity. The results show that the RI is not very sensitive to pressure values and instead depends strongly on temperature and this dependence increases with increasing relative humidity. It should be emphasized that the RI undoubtedly depends on the local climatology of the quantities from which it is calculated.