Modeling radio communication blackout and blackout mitigation in hypersonic vehicles

TL;DR

This paper presents a comprehensive modeling approach for radio communication blackout in hypersonic vehicles, combining plasma physics and electromagnetic simulations, and proposes a mitigation scheme using a magnetic window.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed simulation framework integrating plasma and electromagnetic models for hypersonic vehicle communication blackout analysis and mitigation.

Findings

Validated plasma density simulations against experimental data.

Demonstrated radio blackout occurrence during hypersonic reentry.

Proposed a magnetic window scheme to mitigate blackout effects.

Abstract

A procedure for the modeling and analysis of radio communication blackout of hypersonic vehicles is presented. The weakly ionized plasma generated around the surface of a hypersonic reentry vehicle is simulated using full Navier-Stokes equations in multi-species single fluid form. A seven species air chemistry model is used to compute the individual species densities in air including ionization - plasma densities are compared with experiment. The electromagnetic wave's interaction with the plasma layer is modeled using multi-fluid equations for fluid transport and full Maxwell's equations for the electromagnetic fields. The multi-fluid solver is verified for a whistler wave propagating through a slab. First principles radio communication blackout over a hypersonic vehicle is demonstrated along with a simple blackout mitigation scheme using a magnetic window.