Effects of Reentry Plasma Sheath on the Polarization Properties of Obliquely Incident EM Waves

TLDR

The authors develop a transmission‑line‑analogy technique to analyze how perpendicular and parallel polarized waves incident obliquely on a reentry plasma sheath transmit. Using transmission coefficients, they examine how incident angle, electron density, and collision frequency affect the polarization of an obliquely incident GPS right‑hand circularly polarized wave. Numerical simulations show that larger incident angles and lower collision frequencies worsen polarization degradation, which is most severe when the peak electron density cutoff frequency is near the EM wave frequency.

Abstract

A novel and simple analytical technique referred to as transmission line analogy is developed and modified to study the transmission properties of the perpendicular polarized wave and the parallel polarized wave obliquely incident on the reentry plasma sheath. Based on the transmission coefficients, the effects of the plasma sheath on the polarization property of obliquely incident electromagnetic (EM) waves are studied. Taking the GPS navigation right hand circularly polarized wave as an example, the influences of incident angle and plasma parameters, including the electron density and the collision frequency on the EM wave's polarization property are studied. Numerical results indicate that the larger the incident angle and the lower the collision frequency is, the worse the deterioration of the polarization property. In addition, the polarization property deteriorates most seriously when the cutoff frequency of the peak electron density is closest to the frequency of the EM waves.