Talk:Atmospheric diffraction

i have this on my list to work on. i am an expert in this field, especially acoustics and radio waves in atmospheric refraction...hope to get some help from an expert in optical refraction Anlace 18:46, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

The opening phrase seems odd to me -

Fourier optics is the bending of light rays in the atmosphere, which results in remarkable visual displays of astronomical objects, such as depictions on this page.

Perhaps the author meant 'Atmospheric optics is the bending of light rays in the atmosphere, which ...' Wandell (talk) 05:57, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

I work for Northrop Grumman, which acquired ESL Inc. when TRW was acquired. As best I can tell this reference doesn't exist: Michael Hogan, Ionospheric Diffraction of VHF Radio Waves, ESL Inc., Palo Alto, California, IR-26 22 May 1967. When I made the official inquery to the Electromagnetic Systems Laboratory in San Jose, CA I was given this response: "I could not find Mike Hogan's 1967 IR&D report.  Our microfilm records only go back to 1987.  I also checked whether Mike Hogan had published any journal papers near that year but found none." — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rgillesp1 (talk • contribs) 12:59, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

Diffraction or refraction?
In the section about radio propagation, this article uses the term diffraction repeatedly, but the phenomenon described seems to be refraction, not diffraction. Nearly all other articles and sources cite refraction as the mechanism. The ionosphere bends radio waves because its refractive index is different from that of normal air. DIFFRACTION occurs only when a wave passes through a hole or slot, or between two objects, or when passing a sharp edge such as a building or mountain ridge. I have some knowledge on the topic, perhaps not expert level. My understanding is that diffraction applies to ground waves, but the mechanism for skywaves and ionosphere is refraction, not diffraction.

Does anyone else agree that the use of "diffraction" is wrong term to use in this case? If so, the section should be changed to remove any mention of skywaves/ionospheric bending. Groundwaves might be mentioned as being due to diffraction, but the effect is not due to atmospheric diffraction necessarily, so perhaps does not belong here either. Solviva (talk) 00:57, 19 August 2023 (UTC)