Homogeneity of the tropospheric refractive-index structure

By the aid of beam-swinging experiments, information regarding the spatial homogeneity of the refractive-index field in the height interval from 1.0 to 8.0 km was obtained. The troposphere was found to be highly homogeneous in the horizontal direction, whereas in the vertical direction the rate at which the spectral density <£ decreased with height z was considerable (mean value of 7db/km). Correlating the received power with all the pertinent meteorological parameters that can be deduced from radiosonde measurements, we found a correlation coefficient of 0.91 with the refractive index N. By correlating dΦ/dz with the spatial mean values of the meteorological parameters, a significant relationship was found with a composite expression that includes the refractive index, the static stability, and the wind shear.