RADIO FREQUENCY (RF) PROPAGATION PREDICTIONS THROUGH NUCLEAR CLOUDS

DURING THE PAST TWENTY-FIVE YEARS, SEVERAL COMPUTER CODES HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED TO PREDICT VARIOUS RADAR EFFECTS CONCERNING PROPAGATION THROUGH NUCLEAR FIREBALLS. FOR THE MOST PART, THESE HAVE BEEN DESIGNED EXCLUSIVELY FOR GROUND-BASED ABM RADARS. THIS PROPOSED STUDY IS DESIGNED TO PERMIT CALCULATION OF ALL RADAR EFFECTS AFFECTING PROPAGATION FROM ARBITRARY PLATFORMS, IN SPACE AS WELL AS GROUNDBASED. TO THIS END, A THOROUGH STUDY OF ALL AVAILABLE DATA ON RADAR PROPAGATION THROUGH NUCLEAR FIREBALLS WOULD BE MADE, U.S. AS WELL AS FOREIGN. A SIMILAR STUDY WOULD BE MADE FOR INFORMATION FROM SIMULATED BURSTS AND NATURAL PHENOMENA. FROM THIS DATA AN ANALYTIC MODEL OF RADAR PROPAGATION EFFECTS (ABSORPTION, REFRACTION, SCATTERING, SCINTILLATION AND COHERENT PHASE EFFECTS, AS WELL AS FIREBALL NOISE RADIATION) WOULD BE CONSTRUCTED AND COMPARED WITH PREDICTIONS OF SUCH DNA CODES AS WESCOM AND NORSE. FINALLY, A CODE STRUCTURE WOULD BE DESIGNED TO PERMIT, DURING PHASE II, CONSTRUCTION OF A FASTRUNNING, MODULAR, USER-FRIENDLY COMPUTER CODE FOR RADAR PROPAGATION FROM ARBITRARY PLATFORMS.