Modeling Radar Propagation Over Terrain

athematical techniques are presented for modeling electromagnetic propagation over an irregular boundary. The techniques are aimed at upgrading the Applied Physics Laboratory’s Tropospheric Electromagnetic Parabolic Equation Routine (TEMPER) model for radar propagation over terrain. The physical domain with an irregular boundary is mapped to a rectangular domain, where a numerical solution can be generated by the same approach used in TEMPER. This new method is applied to several model terrain problems and shown to be accurate and practical for a reasonable range of surface slopes. Interesting results are discussed for the shadowing of radar by terrain obstacles and the detection of low-flying targets over mountainous terrain.