Atmospheric Refractivity Studies with Airborne Microwave Refractometer

Abstract

An airborne microwave refractometer was used for measurement of refractive index profiles in the Kanpur-Nainital region. Details of the instrument and experiments are described in this paper. Average refractivity profiles obtained from the data are plotted. Fine structure of refractivity shows scale of turbulence of the order of tens of meters and mean squared refractivity fluctuations about 10⁻¹¹ for heights upto 2300 meters. The exponent of the wave number dependence of refractivity spectrum has a range of 3 to 5.