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Yes, radio waves are attenuated in the atmosphere. This is highly frequency dependent - for practical applications the lower the frequency, the less radio waves
by jupp0r 5y ago
Yes, radio waves are attenuated in the atmosphere. This is highly frequency dependent - for practical applications the lower the frequency, the less radio waves are attenuated. In comparison with attenuation from obstacles in non-line-of-sight situations, the atmospheric component is not significant.
For really long range propagation on earth, reflections on atmospheric layers are the dominant factor (as there is no line of sights due to the curvature of the planetary surface).
See https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/atmospheric-attenuation https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/atmospheric... for some nice graphs.
- BizarroLand 5y agoDoes that mean that there is an electromagnetic frequency that, no matter how much power we can feasibly put into it, it simply will not transmit through earth's atmosphere due to its' instantaneous attenuation outside of a vacuum?
- jupp0r 5y agoYes, in the terahertz band range for example you have very high attenuation of more than 1000 db/km. It's a spectrum (no pun intended), so depending on where you draw the line on "through earth's atmosphere" in terms of how far you want to transmit, you'll have some frequency where this becomes infeasible or you'll need more directed antennas and/or more transmit power.