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Question 146

What are “extraordinary” and “ordinary” waves?

  1. Extraordinary waves exhibit rare long-skip propagation, compared to ordinary waves, which travel shorter distances
  2. Independently propagating, elliptically polarized waves created in the ionosphereCorrect answer
  3. Long-path and short-path waves
  4. Refracted rays and reflected waves

Explanation

The Earth's magnetic field makes the ionosphere birefringent, so a wave entering it propagates as two independent characteristic modes — the ordinary and the extraordinary wave — which are elliptically polarized in the general case and see different refractive indices, so they follow different paths and suffer different absorption. The names have nothing to do with unusually long skip, with long versus short path, or with a distinction between refraction and reflection.

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Question 146: What are “extraordinary” and “ordinary” waves? · FCC Amateur Extra Class (Element 4) · Questena