Path Loss Over Irregular Terrain

A method for computing the path loss over irregular terrains due to diffraction and reflection is described. The mathematical technique used is the discrete Fresnel transform and its inverse. The transform pair is applied to the problem of diffraction due to multiple knife edges. The shadow region of a terrain is then modeled as a set of infinitesimally spaced knife edges. The method is shown to be equivalent to the small-angle parabolic equation. It is tested against the established theoretical and experimental results. Differences between this and other methods are discussed in the Appendix.