PHaRLAP - Provision of High-frequency Raytracing Laboratory for Propagation studies
PHaRLAP is a Matlab toolbox for the study and modelling of the propagation of High Frequency (HF) radio waves in the Earth's ionosphere. It provides 2D and fully magneto-ionic 3D numerical ray tracing (NRT) engines, analytical ray tracing (ART) routines and the necessary supporting routines.
The numerical ray trace routines require gridded profiles of the Earth's ionosphere and magnetic field. Users supply their own models or employ the International Reference Ionophere and International Geomagnetic Reference Field models supplied with PHaRLAP.
The full state-vector of the ray at each point along the ray trajectory is available and user modified state-vectors may be input for advanced ray studies.
The computational engine of PHaRLAP coded in FORTRAN 2008 and compiled under Matlab into mex files which provides the speed of a compiled language with the flexibility, portability and ease of use of a modern interactive language. Currently the Linux (64 bit), Mac OS X and Windows (64 bit) platforms are supported.
Full online help is available within Matlab.
To install PHaRLAP, unzip the package and follow the instructions in the file INSTALL_NOTES.txt. If you have any problems contact the author at znahry.preiren@qrsrapr.tbi.nh
Users are required to read the Acknowledgements prior to installing the software.
Examples of use of PHaRLAP are available in the below articles
- Cervera M. A. and T. J. Harris (2014), Modelling ionospheric disturbance features in quasi-vertically incident ionograms using 3D magneto-ionic raytracing and atmospheric gravity waves, J. Geophys. Res. Space Physics, 119, 431-440, doi:10.1002/2013JA019247
- Pederick, L. and M. A. Cervera (2016), A directional HF noise model: Calibration and validation in the Australian region, Radio Sci., 51, 25-39, doi:10.1002/2015RS005842
- Pederick, L. and M. A. Cervera (2016), Modelling the interference environment in the HF band, Radio Sci., 51, 82-90, doi:10.1002/2015RS005856
- Francis, D., B., M. A. Cervera, and G. J. Frazer (2017), Performance Prediction for Design of a Network of Skywave Over-the-Horizon Radars, IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems, 32(12), 18-28,doi: 10.1109/MAES.2017.170056
- Cervera, M. A., Francis, D., B., and G. J. Frazer (2018), Climatological Model of Over-the-horizon Radar (CMOR), Radio Sci., 53, 988-1001, doi:10.1029/2018RS006607
- Edwards, D. J., Cervera, M. A.., and MacKinnon, A. D. (2022), High Frequency Land Backscatter Coefficients Over Northern Australia and the Effects of Various Surface Properties, IEEE Antennas and Propagation, 70(7), 5819-5830
- Edwards, D. J., Cervera M. A., and MacKinnon, A. D. (2022), A comparison of the Barrick and backscatter ionogram methods of calculating sea backscatter coefficients, Remote Sensing, 14(9), 2139
- Edwards, D., and Cervera, M. (2022), Seasonal Variation in Land and Sea Surface Backscatter Coefficients at High Frequencies, Remote Sensing, 14(21), 5514
