THE RED EXPERIMENT An Assessment of Boundary Layer Effects in a Trade Winds Regime on Microwave and Infrared Propagation over the Sea

SEPTEMBER 2004 AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY | W hen radars first came into operation during the late 1930s, they were not expected to detect targets much beyond the geometrical horizon. These early radars, operating at a wavelength of 13 m, generally met expectations. As new radars were rapidly developed, operating at shorter and shorter wavelengths for better target detection, observations of anomalous propagation effects became more frequent. When 10-cm radars were installed along the south coast of England during World War II, they were often able to see the coast of France, even though the coast was well beyond the geometric horizon (Booker 1948). These anomalous propagation effects also became more pronounced as the operating area became more tropical. For example, a 1.5-mwavelength radar operating in Bombay, India, reTHE RED EXPERIMENT An Assessment of Boundary Layer Effects in a Trade Winds Regime on Microwave and Infrared Propagation over the Sea