A statistical study of anomalous VHF propagation due to the sporadic-E layer in the air-navigation band

The sporadic-E (Es) layer is an ionospheric layer which appears occasionally near 100-km heights with extremely high electron density. The Es layer may reflect very high-frequency radio signals when the incident angle is shallow (Es layer anomalous propagation [EsAP]). It is known that radio signals with frequencies above 100 MHz sometimes reach distant locations, more than 600 km apart from the transmitters, due to EsAP. Since air-navigation radio channels are allocated on frequencies between 108 and 118 MHz, EsAP may interfere with directly propagating wave (ground wave) signals. However, as the occurrence and strength of EsAP on these frequencies have not been studied well, it is difficult to assess the impact of EsAP on the air navigation. In this paper, we report the statistics of the occurrence and strength of EsAP based on a 3-year continuous monitoring of very high-frequency air-navigation radio signal strength on the ground. The statistics show that strong EsAPs occur frequently in summer. The occurrence pattern of EsAP is generally consistent with ionosonde observations of Es layer: Most Es layers appear during summer, primary peak in daytime, with a second peak in the evening. During an extreme EsAP event, in a particular channel, an EsAP signal was superposed on a ground wave signal which resulted in a fluctuation of ground wave signal by more than ±10 dB. Our statistical results suggest that the Es layer has a potential impact on air-navigation applications.