Prediction of operational parameters of radio signals passing a land-satellite link through stormtime ionosphere

Introduction: The subject of this research became important during the recent decades due to the increasing demand in globalization of wireless networks by using long-path ionospheric radiowave propagation in land-satellite communication links. Purpose: Analyzing the key parameters of VHF/UHF radio waves in a satellite-land link which determine the fading effects occurring in storm-time mid-latitude ionosphere. Results: For perturbed plasma parameters experimentally caused by a magnetic storm, the absorption and phase fluctuations of the radio signals were examined. The scintillation index corresponding to signal scintillations in multi-path ionospheric communication links with fading was studied on the base of experimental data. It has been shown that -10% density irregularities in the storm-time F region yield strong fast fading of radio signals in VHF/UHF frequency band with considerable signal intensity fluctuations (up to 1%) and phase deviations (up to hundreds of radians). Practical relevance: The obtained results allow you to predict multiplicative fading in ionospheric sub-channels and its impact on the total link budget in a full land-satellite communication link.