Characteristics of the electromagnetic wave propagation in magnetized plasma sheath and practical method for blackout mitigation

Abstract

“Magnetic window” is considered as an effective method to solve the communication blackout issue. COMSOL software package based on the finite element method is utilized to simulate the propagation of right-handed circularly polarized wave in the magnetized plasma sheath. We assume a double Gaussian model of electron density and an exponential attenuation model of magnetic field. The propagation characteristics of right-handed circularly polarized wave are analyzed by the observation of the reflected, transmitted and loss coefficient. The numerical results show that the propagation of right-handed circularly polarized wave in the magnetized plasma sheath varies for different incident angles, collision frequencies, non-uniform magnetic fields and non-uniform plasma densities. We notice that reducing the wave frequency can meet the propagation conditions of whistle mode in the weak magnetized plasma sheath. And the transmittance of whistle mode is less affected by the variation of the electron density and the collision frequency. It can be used as a communication window.