PHaRLAP: Provision of High-frequency Ray tracing LAboratory for Propagation studies

PHaRLAP is a MATLAB-based toolbox created by Australia's Defence Science and Technology Group for studying and modelling HF radio wave propagation through the Earth’s ionosphere. It provides a variety of ray tracing engines and necessary supporting routines. The ray tracing engines include full 3D magneto-ionic numerical ray tracing (3D NRT), 2D numerical ray tracing (2D NRT) and analytic ray tracing (ART). Propagation losses, focusing/defocusing, ionospheric absorption, ground forward scatter and backscatter losses, backscatter due to field aligned irregularities, O-X mode splitting (including power coupled into each mode) are all able to be modelled. This presentation describes PHaRLAP and gives examples of its use to solve real-world problems.