Impulse Response of a Meteor Burst Communications Channel Determined by Ray-Tracing Techniques

Ray-tracing techniques are used to derive the impulse response at VHF of a meteor burst communications channel. An approach to analyze the effects of multipath arising from wind shear is also presented and is applied to a simplified model of trail distortion. Within the limitations of the models adopted, we have found that a single path with a spread of approximately 0.2 μs adequately describes the channel behavior within roughly half a second from trail formation, and that a multipath structure with several paths and a total multipath spread of approximately 2 μs is typically associated with the channel at later times, when the wind shear substantially affects the trail shape. These results are consistent with experimental findings according to which a meteor trail communications channel is capable of transmitting beyond-the-horizon bursts of television images of broadcast quality typically for a fraction of a second after trail formation.