A Generalized Tool for Modeling Radio Wave Propagation in Earth’s Ionosphere

Over the last several decades, our use of GNSS and other satellites has increased dramatically. Ionospheric irregularities regularly disrupt communications with these satellites through phase and amplitude scintillations of radio wave signals. To study the effects of irregularities on satellite signals, we have developed a new high-performance Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) code for simulating radio wave propagation in a plasma environment. The FDTD method is a direct solution to Maxwell’s equations and captures all relevant effects such as wave polarization, Faraday rotation, diffraction, refraction, and phase delay. The FDTD code will propagate radio waves through ionospheric irregularities produced by other simulators, including the Electrostatic Parallel Particle-in-Cell (EPPIC) code. Here we present validation and benchmarks from the coupled FDTD/EPPIC system used to simulate GNSS scintillation. We also demonstrate other potential uses for this new tool, including an attempt to model the spectrum from radar Bragg scattering off the Farley-Buneman instability.