The atmospheric environment is one of the critical factors affecting troposcatter transmission loss and propagation delay. This article proposes a new estimation model that can accurately calculate troposcatter transmission loss and propagation delay with a numerical weather model (NWM). The ERA5 reanalysis data as the NWM are applied to construct the new model. The 3-D ray-tracing and beam splitting are used to calculate propagation paths and delays. Compared with the existing methods, the new model thoroughly considered the bending and delaying effects of the atmospheric environment on electromagnetic waves, resulting in more accurate estimates. The transmission loss calculation capability of the new model is compared with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) model and the terrestrial trans-horizon propagation loss data banks. The propagation delay calculation capability is compared with the Bello model. These comparison results show that the new model sufficiently reflects the meteorological environment's influence on transmission loss and propagation delay. Finally, the daily variation characteristics of losses and delays are analyzed using the new model and further validate the model performance.

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Troposcatter propagation delay is one of the most significant sources of errors in troposcatter time comparison. The existing methods of calculating troposcatter propagation delay face problems in terms of effectively reflecting the influence of the meteorological environment on troposcatter propagation delay, due to the insufficient spatial and temporal resolution of the meteorological data. This article proposes a high-precision calculation method for troposcatter propagation delay based on atmospheric reanalysis data. The troposcatter propagation path and the refractive index along the troposcatter data were obtained by combining 3D ray tracing with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts’ Reanalysis 5 (ERA5), with high spatial and temporal resolution. This found the hour-level time delay in troposcatter. The geometric delay, path delay, and total propagation delay of the troposcatter were calculated and analyzed via 12 scattering links in 6 typical geographical regions. It was found that the path delay was the main cause of the propagation delay of troposcatter, and that the proportion of geometric delay in the total propagation delay increased along with an increase in link distance. The propagation delay changed noticeably in different seasons. The path delay was higher in summer and lower in winter, the geometric delay was lower in summer and higher in winter, and the total propagation delay was mainly high in summer and low in winter. There were differences in delay date, seasonal fluctuation amplitude, and in hourly fluctuation standard deviation among different geographic areas.