A study of the ground illumination footprint of meteor scatter communication

An examination is made of the ground illumination footprint of meteor trails and its effect on the simultaneous reception of meteor scatter transmissions by multiple receivers. A technique for calculating the ground illumination footprint of individual trails which provides added insight into the physical mechanisms is presented. The probability of adjacent station reception as a function of location on the ground is calculated by computing the ground illumination footprint of individual trails at different locations and orientations within the common volume and weighting each footprint by the number of trails at that location and orientation. Two different models for the spatial arrival pattern of meteor trails are considered: the first model assumes that trails arrive uniformly over the common volume, and the second calculates the number of arrivals from the spatial distribution of meteor orbits, antenna patterns, time of day, and season. The effect of antenna patterns on the ground illumination footprint of meteor scatter communication is examined