Evaporation duct assessment from meteorological buoys

The evaporation duct over the sea is usually assessed using bulk meteorological measurements. This paper investigates the utility of meteorological buoys as a source for these bulk measurements and compares evaporation duct assessments using two buoys in southern California waters separated by 128 km. A simple radio propagation experiment at 2.4 GHz between one of the buoys and the coast on an 18.2 km path is described. Observed propagation loss from this experiment is compared to modeled loss based on the meteorological measurements at each buoy. The purpose of this paper is to investigate radio propagation effects using established and accepted methods already described in the literature. Accordingly, no discussion of atmospheric surface layer meteorology affecting radio propagation is given.