Experimental verification of effect of horizontal inhomogeneity of evaporation duct on electromagnetic wave propagation

The evaporation duct which forms above the ocean surface has a significant influence on electromagnetic wave propagation above 2 GHz over the ocean. The effects of horizontal inhomogeneity of evaporation duct on electromagnetic wave propagation are investigated, both in numerical simulation and experimental observation methods, in this paper. Firstly, the features of the horizontal inhomogeneity of the evaporation duct are discussed. Then, two typical inhomogeneous cases are simulated and compared with the homogeneous case. The result shows that path loss is significantly higher than that in the homogeneous case when the evaporation duct height （EDH） at the receiver is lower than that at the transmitter. It is also concluded that the horizontal inhomogeneity of the evaporation duct has a significant influence when the EDH is low or when the electromagnetic wave frequency is lower than 13 GHz. Finally, experimental data collected on a 149-km long propagation path in the South China Sea in 2013 are used to verify the conclusion. The experimental results are consis- tent with the simulation results. The horizontal inhomogeneity of evaporation duct should be considered when modeling electromagnetic wave propagation over the ocean.

An evaporation duct prediction model coupled with the MM5

Evaporation duct is an abnormal refractive phenomenon in the marine atmosphere boundary layer. It has been generally accepted that the evaporation duct prominently affects the performance of the electronic equipment over the sea because of its wide distribution and frequent occurrence. It has become a research focus of the navies all over the world. At present, the diagnostic models of the evaporation duct are all based on the Monin-Obukhov similarity theory, with only differences in the flux and character scale calculations in the surface layer. These models are applicable to the stationary and uniform open sea areas without considering the alongshore effect. This paper introduces the nonlinear factor a and the gust wind item wg into the Babin model, and thus extends the evaporation duct diagnostic model to the offshore area under extremely low wind speed. In addition, an evaporation duct prediction model is designed and coupled with the fifth generation mesoscale model （MMS）. The tower observational data and radar data at the Pingtan island of Fujian Province on May 25-26, 2002 were used to validate the forecast results. The outputs of the prediction model agree with the observations from 0 to 48 h. The relative error of the predicted evaporation duct height is 19.3% and the prediction results are consistent with the radar detection.

Influence of obstacle on electromagnetic wave propagation in evaporation duct with experiment verification

In this paper, the influence of obstacle on electromagnetic wave propagation in an evaporation duct is investigated, both from numerical simulation and experimental observation. A comparison of electromagnetic wave propagation in evaporation duct with and without obstacle for a typical case is presented. The presence of obstacle causes a significant increase in path loss. The obstacle has significant impact on electromagnetic wave propagation when the frequency is higher than 5 GHz and when the evaporation duct height is higher than 10 m. The influence of an island on electromagnetic wave propagation was observed in the experiment held in the South China Sea, October 2012. The experiment result shows that the island causes about 30-40 dB increase in path loss. The discrepancy between model and measurement is analyzed and the errors of transmitting antenna height and relative humidity are the possible causes of the discrepancy.

On analyzing space-time distribution of evaporation duct height over the global ocean

The statistical features of the evaporation duct over the global ocean were comprehensively investigated with reanalysis data sets from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction. These data sets have time and spatial resolutions of 1 h and 0.313°x0.312°, respectively. The efficiency of the analysis was evaluated by processing weather buoy data from the Pacific Ocean and measuring propagation loss in the Yellow Sea of China. The distribution features of evaporation duct height （EDH） and the related meteorological factors for different seas were analyzed. The global EDH is generally high and demonstrates a latitudinal distribution for oceans at low latitudes. The average EDH is approximately 11 m over oceans beside the equator with a latitude of less than 20°. The reasons for the formation of the global EDH features were also analyzed for different sea areas.

IMPROVEMENT TO THE EVAPORATION DUCT MODEL BY INTRODUCING NONLINEAR SIMILARITY FUNCTIONS IN STABLE CONDITIONS

Modified refractivity (M) profile is an important parameter to describe the atmospheric refraction environment,as well as a key factor in uniquely evaluating electromagnetic propagation effects.In order to improve the model-derived M profile in stable (especially very stable) conditions,three nonlinear similarity functions,namely BH91,CB05,SHEBA07,are introduced in this paper to improve the original Babin_V25 model,and the performances of these modified models are verified based on the hydrometeorological observations from tower platforms,which are finally compared with the original Babin_V25 model and Local_HYQ92 model.Results show that introducing nonlinear similarity functions can significantly improve the model-derived M profile;especially,the newly developed SHEBA07 functions manage to reduce the predicted root mean square (rms) differences of M and M slope (for both 0-5m and 5-40m) by 64.5%,16.6%,and 60.4%,respectively in stable conditions.Unfortunately,this improved method reacts little on the evaporation duct height;in contrast,Local_HYQ92 model is capable of reducing the predicted rms differences of M,M slope (for both 0-5m and 5-40m),and evaporation duct height by 76.7%,40.2%,83.7%,and 58.0% respectively.Finally,a new recommendation is made to apply Local_HYQ92 and Babin_SHEBA07 in very stable conditions considering that M slope is more important than evaporation duct height and absolute M value in uniquely determining electromagnetic propagation effects.

Impact of Evaporation Duct on Electromagnetic Wave Propagation During a Typhoon

The evaporation duct,a result of evaporation from the ocean,is a region above the sea surface in which radio waves are refracted downward.This duct has strong effects on microwave instruments.Typhoons cause huge anomalies in marine meteorological parameters that influence the evaporation duct distribution and structure,which in turn affects the propagation of electromagnetic(EM)waves.However,EM wave propagation under the typhoon process has seldom been reported.Thus,taking Typhoon Phanfone(201929)as an example,this study uses a dataset from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts,combined with the Naval Atmospheric Vertical Surface Layer Model and the parabolic equation model,to study the evaporation duct’s impact on EM wave propagation during a typhoon.The spatial and temporal path loss distributions reveal that large amounts of EM wave energy are emitted from the evaporation duct when the EM wave passes through a typhoon eye.On average,a typhoon eye causes an approximately 20 dB increase in path loss for EM wave propagation at low antenna height.Furthermore,the effects of a typhoon eye on EM wave propagation at different signal frequencies and antenna heights are studied.The results show that a typhoon has a larger impact on EM wave propagation with low signal frequency and high antenna height.

Development and Validation of an Evaporation Duct Model.Part Ⅰ:Model Establishment and Sensitivity Experiments

Based on the Coupled Ocean-Atmospheric Response Experiment （COARE） bulk algorithm and the Naval Postgraduate School （NPS） model, a universal evaporation duct （UED） model that can flexibly accommodate the latest improvements in component （such as stability function, velocity roughness, and scalar roughness） schemes for different stratification and wind conditions, is proposed in this paper. With the UED model, the sensitivity of the model-derived evaporation duct height （EDH） to stability function （ψ）, ocean wave effect under moderate to high wind speeds, and scalar roughness length parameterization, is investigated, and relative contributions of these factors are compared. The results show that the stability function is a key factor influencing the simulated EDH values. Under unstable conditions, the EDH values from stability functions of Fairall et al. （1996） and Hu and Zhang （1992） are generally higher than those from others; while under stable conditions, unreasonably high EDHs can be avoided by use of the stability functions of Hu and Zhang （1992） and Grachev et al. （2007）. Under moderate to high wind speeds, the increase in velocity roughness length z0 due to consideration of the true ocean wave effect acts to reduce modeled EDH values; this trend is more pronounced under stable conditions. Although the scalar roughness length parameterization has a minor effect on the model-derived EDH, a positive correlation is found between the scalar roughness length z0q and the model-derived EDH.

A New Evaporation Duct Climatology over the South China Sea

The climatology of evaporation ducts is important for shipborne electromagnetic system design and application. The evaporation duct climatology that is currently used for such applications was developed in the mid 1980s; this study presents efforts to improve it over the South China Sea （SCS） by using a state- of-the-art evaporation duct model and an improved meteorology dataset. This new climatology provides better evaporation duct height （EDH） data over the SCS, at a higher resolution of 0.312°×0.313°. A comparison between the new climatology and the old one is performed. The monthly average EDH in the new climatology is between 10 and 12 m over the SCS, higher than that in the old climatology. The spatiotemporal characteristics of the evaporation duct over the SCS in different months are analyzed in detail, based on the new climatology.

Development and Validation of an Evaporation Duct Model.Part Ⅱ:Evaluation and Improvement of Stability Functions

This study aims to validate and improve the universal evaporation duct （UED） model through a further analysis of the stability function （ψ）. A large number of hydrometeorological observations obtained from a tower platform near Xisha Island of the South China Sea are employed, together with the latest variations inψ function. Applicability of different ψ functions for specific sea areas and stratification conditions is investigated based on three objective criteria. The results show that, under unstable conditions, ψfunction of Fairall et al. （1996） （i.e., Fairal196, similar for abbreviations of other function names） in general offers the best performance. However, strictly speaking, this holds true only for the stability （represented by bulk Richardson number RiB） range -2.6 ≤ RiB 〈 -0.1; when conditions become weakly unstable （-0.1 ≤ RiB 〈 --0.01）, Fairal196 offers the second best performance after Hu and Zhang （1992） （HYQ92）. Conversely, for near-neutral but slightly unstable conditions （-0.01≤ RiB 〈 0.0）, the effects of Edson04, Fairall03, Grachev00, and Fairal196 are similar, with Edson04 being the best function but offering only a weak advan- tage. Under stable conditions, HYQ92 is the optimal and offers a pronounced advantage, followed by the newly introduced SHEBA07 （by Grachev et al., 2007） function. Accordingly, the most favorable functions, i.e., Fairal196 and HYQ92, are incorporated into the UED model to obtain an improved version of the model. With the new functions, the mean root-mean-square （rms） errors of the modified refractivity （M）, 0-5-m M slope, 5-40-m M slope, and the rms errors of evaporation duct height （EDH） are reduced by 21.65%, 9.12%, 38.79%, and 59.06%, respectively, compared to the classical Naval Postgraduate School model.

ELM-Based Impact Analysis of Meteorological Parameters on the Radio Transmission of X-Band over the Qiongzhou Strait of China

Communication in the evaporation duct layer is greatly affected by the variation of meteorological parameters.Based on the experimental result of the radio transmission of the X-band over the Qiongzhou Strait of China,the characteristic of the duct and its influence on the transmission effect is analyzed.The results indicate that the evaporation duct height(EDH)has a negative Spearman’s rank correlation of-0.90 with the relative humidity and a positive correlation coefficient of 0.84 with the wind speed.Based on the Extreme Learning Machine(ELM)network,we proposed a Met-ELM model that can provide efficient support in predicting propagation characteristics at nighttime.The predicted results of the MetELM model are consistent with the measurements;the root-mean-square-error is 1.66 dB,with the correlation coefficient reaching 0.96,while the proportion of mean absolute error less than 2 dB has reached81.41%.The data-derived Met-ELM model shows great accuracy in predicting propagation characteristics at nighttime,which also meets the acceptable requirements for radio wave propagation.

Performance Comparison of GA,PSO,and DE Approaches in Estimating Low Atmospheric Refractivity Profiles

Particles swarm optimization（PSO） and differential evolution（DE） algorithms based on optimization are employed to estimate low atmospheric refractivity profiles from radar sea clutter.Low atmospheric refractivity profiles are modeled as evaporation ducts.The objective functions,which are used to evaluate the fit of simulated and measured power in estimation procedures,are also investigated at different frequencies such as L-,S-,C-and X-frequency at 10 m/s wind speeds.The results show that all the objective functions are multi-peak functions.The Adjusted Barton Model of radar cross section（RCS） is adopted.PSO and DE algorithms are compared with genetic algorithm（GA） by 200 Monte Carlo simulation estimations.Simulation results indicate that DE has the best global search ability,and PSO has the highest success probability.According to the statistical results,PSO algorithm with the population size 30 is the appropriate way for evaporation duct estimation.

The study of the transmission of GHz waves in the oceanic low altitude waveguide in the PEM-based gridded method

A parabolic equation method （PEM）-based discrete algorithm is proposed and is used to obtain the field distribution in the evaporation duct space. This method not only improves the computing speed, but also provides the flexibility to adjust the simulation accuracy. Numerical simulation of the wave propagation in the oceanic waveguide structure is done. In addition, the initial field distribution and progressive steps are determined. The loss model in the waveguide is solved through the numerical solution. By comparing the characteristics of the radio wave propagation in the duct and in the normal atmospheric structure, we analyses the radio transmission over the horizon detection in the oceanic waveguide.