Characteristics of UHF waves distribution in land and water surface tropospheric waveguide

The article considers examples of ultra-long propagation of UHF radio waves in mobile cellular communication systems. The phenomena are mainly observed in the Astrakhan region in the spring-summer period (May–June) and are presumably associated with sharp seasonal changes of air temperature followed by rains. The effect of temperature inversion results in changing the refraction index in the surface layer and, as a result, in changing the wave direction as the effect of superrefraction in the surface atmospheric layer. The properties of radio waves in their propagation in the land and sea-water surface waveguide are investigated. The values of the heights of land and sea-water surface tropospheric waveguides for cellular communication systems of different ranges are obtained. The features of existing of tropospheric land and sea-water surface tropospheric waveguides are described. The need to use their properties in the mobile communication systems design is stated.