Clustering Analysis of Refractive Index Profiles: Toward a Ducting Climatology

Historically, radiosonde and other data sources were used to determine average duct heights, average M-deficit and other properties of ducts. Further, various values can be found for certain deciles of each of the computed statistical parameters. However, it is, in general, difficult to reconstruct profiles that are representative of the original refractive profile structure and its distribution. The goal of this research is to develop methods that can be used to determine representative climatological atmospheres for use in high fidelity RF parabolic equation propagation models. This entails determining representative atmospheric profiles worldwide. This research focuses on determining representative refractive profiles at a specified time, date and location. The methods can then be extended to give representative atmospheres for RF links of interest.