Groundwave Modeling and Simulation Strategies and Path Loss Prediction Virtual Tools

Reliable and accurate groundwave propagation path loss prediction between a pair of transmitter/receiver necessitates a good understanding of electromagnetic wave scattering in the presence of non-flat terrain and inhomogeneous atmosphere, and this is one of the major issues in radio communication and radar systems design. A propagation engineer desires to have a numerical propagator that calculates the radiowave path loss, without going into details and/or having a deep knowledge of the propagation phenomena, between any two points specified on a digital map of the area of interest. Since a generally applicable, all-purpose propagation prediction method has not developed yet one has to understand validity and accuracy ranges, and the limitations of available prediction models and tools; this certainly requires, to some extent, the physical insight of the propagation problem at hand. This article aims to summarize groundwave propagation modeling and numerical simulation strategies, and to review some of the virtual tools, introduced recently.