Statistical Methods in Radio Wave Propagation

Book excerpt: Statistical Methods in Radio Wave Propagation contains the proceedings of a symposium held at the University of California, Los Angeles, on June 18-20, 1958. The papers explore the use of statistical techniques in the analysis and interpretation of data pertaining to the propagation of radio waves. The discussion is organized around three themes: statistical theory and methodology; radio propagation phenomena having a joint statistical and physical structure; and instrumentation. This book is comprised of 23 chapters and begins by summarizing the principal results of a series of statistical studies on the intensity distributions due to rapid fading. The reader is then introduced to some theoretical investigations on fading phenomena; radio-measurement of ionospheric drift as a problem in parameter estimation; the propagation of random radiation in free space; and the statistics of working spells and periods of breakdown for a number of radio links in series. The remaining chapters deal with airborne measurements of tropospheric index of refraction fluctuations; the distribution of the fade lengths of a randomly fading radio signal; diversity statistics in scatter propagation; and extrapolation of spatial correlation functions. The final chapter describes a rapid statistical data processing system for radio propagation research. This monograph will be a useful resource for both radio scientists and statisticians.