Atmospheric duct by the ionosphere. The reduced refractive index due to lower densities at the higher altitudes in the Earth's atmosphere bends the signals back toward the Earth. Signals in a higher refractive index layer, "i.e.," duct, tend to remain in that layer because of the reflection and refraction encountered at the boundary with a lower refractive index material. In some weather conditions, such as inversion layers, density changes so rapidly that waves are guided around the curvature of the earth at constant altitude. Phenomena of atmospheric optics related to atmospheric ducting include the green flash, Fata Morgana, superior mirage, mock mirage
Earth–Moon–Earth communication facility to rotate antennas to adjust polarization. Another component is Faraday rotation on the Earth-Moon-Earth path; the plane of polarization of radio waves rotates as they pass through ionized layers of the Earth's atmosphere. This effect is more pronounced at lower VHF frequencies and becomes less significant at 1296 MHZ and above. Some of the polarization mismatch loss can be alleviated by using a larger antenna array (more Yagi elements or a larger dish). Earth–Moon–Earth communication Earth–Moon–Earth communication (EME), also known as moon bounce, is a radio communications technique that relies on the propagation of radio waves from an Earth-based