In telecommunication, effective Earth radius is the radius of a hypothetical Earth for which the distance to the radio horizon, assuming rectilinear propagation, is the same as that for the actual Earth with an assumed uniform vertical gradient of atmospheric refractive index.
For the standard atmosphere, the effective Earth radius is 4/3 that of the actual Earth radius. The ratio of the effective Earth radius to the actual Earth radius is called the k factor.
Famous quotes containing the words effective and/or earth:
“I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution.”
—Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885)
“As a man-of-war that sails through the sea, so this earth that sails through the air. We mortals are all on board a fast-sailing, never-sinking world-frigate, of which God was the shipwright; and she is but one craft in a Milky-Way fleet, of which God is the Lord High Admiral.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)