Author Archives: f5len

Worlwide refractive index forecasts

I am pleased to announce the availability of the worlwide refractive index forecasts.

wwtropo

Maps is fully  customizable and show refractive index from 80° S to 80° N worlwide.
A click on the map will show the average index for a specific QRA locator.
Furthermore it can display conditions for the 28 lasts days.

Have a try here:                     http://tropo.f5len.org/WW/

Super refraction other the Irish sea

fata_morgana_2017_march_25

(click to enlarge)

John Rowlands (MW1CFN) send this amazing image which shows super refraction of the mountains of Mourne in Northern Ireland, as seen from the Welsh coast – a distance of 142km.

A Fata Morgana can be seen on land or at sea, in polar regions or in deserts. It can involve almost any kind of distant object, including boats, islands and the coastline.
More info on Wikipedia

New map

A new map is available for eastern Europe, Caspian sea, Kazakhstan and Iran.
The map coverage is 30°N -> 65°N and 30° E -> 90°E very closed to the map below.

Eastern Europe, Caspain sea

New model implemented

I use now datas from ARPEGE model from Météo France.
Height resolution is better with more surface levels in the range 2m to 1500m.
Horizontal resolution is 7,5 km for Europe and 36 km for Pacific area.
Time forecast up to 102 hours.
Still need some adjustments on my side but good new source of data.

At this time only Europe area is computed. But the other areas will be soon available.

Pascal

Welcome

Welcome on my new website dedicated to the tropospheric propagation forecast.

From Wikipedia about tropospheric radio propagation:

Sudden changes in the atmosphere’s vertical moisture content and temperature profiles can on random occasions make microwave and UHF & VHF signals propagate hundreds of kilometers up to about 2,000 kilometers (1,300 mi)—and for ducting mode even farther—beyond the normal radio-horizon. The inversion layer is mostly observed over high pressure regions, but there are several tropospheric weather conditions which create these randomly occurring propagation modes. Inversion layer’s altitude for non-ducting is typically found between 100 meters (300 ft) to about 1 kilometer (3,000 ft) and for ducting about 500 meters to 3 kilometers (1,600 to 10,000 ft), and the duration of the events are typically from several hours up to several days. Higher frequencies experience the most dramatic increase of signal strengths, while on low-VHF and HF the effect is negligible. Propagation path attenuation may be below free-space loss. Some of the lesser inversion types related to warm ground and cooler air moisture content occur regularly at certain times of the year and time of day. A typical example could be the late summer, early morning tropospheric enhancements that bring in signals from distances up to few hundred kilometers for a couple of hours, until undone by the Sun’s warming effect.

Forecast areas are available from the upper menu.