Kennelly–Heaviside layer

The Heaviside layer,[1][2] sometimes called the Kennelly–

Heaviside layer,[3][4] named after Arthur E. Kennelly and Oliver
Heaviside, is a layer of ionised gas occurring roughly between
90km and 150  km (56 and 93  mi) above the ground — one of
several layers in the Earth's ionosphere. It is also known as the E
region. It reflects medium-frequency radio waves. Because of this
reflective layer, radio waves radiated into the sky can return to Earth
beyond the horizon. This "skywave" or "skip" propagation
technique has been used since the 1920s for radio communication at Layers of the ionosphere. The
Kennelly–Heaviside layer is the E
long distances, up to transcontinental distances.
region
Propagation is affected by the time of day. During the daytime the
solar wind presses this layer closer to the Earth, thereby limiting
how far it can reflect radio waves. Conversely, on the night (lee) side of the Earth, the solar wind drags the
ionosphere further away, thereby greatly increasing the range which radio waves can travel by reflection.
The extent of the effect is further influenced by the season, and the amount of sunspot activity.

History
Existence of a reflective layer was predicted in 1902 independently and almost simultaneously by the
American electrical engineer Arthur Edwin Kennelly (1861–1939)[5] and the British polymath Oliver
Heaviside (1850–1925), as an explanation for the propagation of radio waves beyond the horizon observed
by Guglielmo Marconi in 1901. However, it was not until 1924 that its existence was shown by British
scientist Edward V. Appleton,[6] for which he received the 1947 Nobel Prize in Physics.[7]

Physicists resisted the idea of the reflecting layer for one very good reason; it would require total internal
reflection, which in turn would require that the speed of light in the ionosphere would be greater than in the
atmosphere below it. Since the latter speed is essentially the same as the speed of light in vacuum (c),
scientists were unwilling to believe the speed in the ionosphere could be higher. Nevertheless, Marconi had
received signals in Newfoundland that were broadcast in England, so clearly there must be some
mechanism allowing the transmission to reach that far. The paradox was resolved by the discovery that
there were two velocities of light, the phase velocity and the group velocity. The phase velocity can in fact
be greater than c, but the group velocity, being capable of transmitting information, cannot, by special
relativity, be greater than c. The phase velocity for radio waves in the ionosphere is indeed greater than c,
and that makes total internal reflection possible, and so the ionosphere can reflect radio waves. The
geometric mean of the phase velocity and the group velocity cannot exceed c, so when the phase velocity
goes above c, the group velocity must go below it.

In 1925, Americans Gregory Breit and Merle A. Tuve first mapped the Heaviside layer's variations in
altitude. The ITU standard model of absorption and reflection of radio waves by the Heaviside Layer was
developed by the British Ionospheric physicist Louis Muggleton[8] in the 1970s.

Etymology
Around 1910, William Eccles proposed the name "Heaviside Layer" for the radio-wave reflecting layer in
the upper atmosphere,[1] and the name has subsequently been widely adopted.[2] The name Kennelly–
Heaviside layer was proposed in 1925 to give credit to the work of Kennelly,[3][5] which predated the
proposal by Heaviside by several months.

See also
Van Allen Belt

References
1. Griffiths, Hugh (15 November 2018). "Oliver Heaviside and the Heaviside layer" (https://royal
societypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsta.2017.0459), Philosophical Transactions of the
Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 376: No. 2134.
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2017.0459. Retrieved 14 June 2019.
2. Marchant, E. W. (Dec. 1916). "The Heaviside layer" (https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/doc
ument/1646012), Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers, 4, No. 6, pp. 511–520.
3. McAdie, Alexander (22 May 1925) "The Kennelly-Heaviside Layer" (https://www.science.or
g/doi/10.1126/science.61.1586.540.a), Science, 61, No 1586, pp. 540 DOI:
10.1126/science.61.1586.540
4. Martyn, D. F. (1934). "Atmospheric Pressure and the Ionisation of the Kennelly-Heaviside
Layer". Nature. 133 (3356): 294. Bibcode:1934Natur.133R.294M (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.e
du/abs/1934Natur.133R.294M). doi:10.1038/133294b0 (https://doi.org/10.1038%2F133294b
0). ISSN 0028-0836 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0028-0836). S2CID 684206 (https://api.s
emanticscholar.org/CorpusID:684206).
5. Russell, A. (24 October 1925). "The “Kennelly-Heaviside” Layer" (https://www.nature.com/art
icles/116609c0#citeas), Nature 116, p. 609. doi:10.1038/116609c0
6. Appleton, Edward V., and Barnett, M. A. F. (1 December 1925). "On some direct evidence for
downward atmospheric reflection of electric rays" (https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/abs/
10.1098/rspa.1925.0149), Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series A, Containing
Papers of a Mathematical and Physical Character, 109.752 pp. 621–641.
7. "Nobel Prizes for 1947: Sir Edward Appleton, G.B.E., K.C.B., F.R.S." (https://www.nature.co
m/articles/160703c0), Nature, 160, pp. 703–704 (22 November 1947) doi:10.1038/160703c0
8. L.M. Muggleton (1975). "A method of predicting foE at any time and place". ITU
Telecommunication Journal. 42: 413–418. Bibcode:1975ITUTJ..42..413M (https://ui.adsabs.
harvard.edu/abs/1975ITUTJ..42..413M).

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