Wave Polarization Effects on the Transmission and Reception of lonospheric Radio Waves

The effects of wave polarization on the transmission and reception of ionospheric radio waves have been discussed. Special attention was given to the effects of polarization on the excitation of characteristic waves in the ionosphere, on the absorption losses in the ionosphere, on the reception of arbitrarily polarized plane waves, and on the polarization coupling losses. In this work only one-hop paths were considered and it was assumed that the operating frequency is in the HF region so that ray theory treatment may be applied with high accuracy. The results of investigation have shown that wave polarization is an important and sometimes critical factor in the overall performance of ionospheric radio networks. It is believed that careful consideration of the wave polarization effects in the design of reliable and efficient communication and broadcasting networks can result in relatively lower transmitter power and in the reduction of the number of channels occupied by a particular station.