Radio frequency wave propagation and scattering in plasmas generated by hypersonic crafts

Re-entry vehicles from space, missiles, aerospace crafts, hyperloop trains are instances of vehicles in hypersonic motion, for which interest has increased lately. Hypersonic endo-atomspheric objects of interests are de-orbiting space debris and meteors. Objects and crafts in endo-atmospheric hypersonic flight generate plasma by shock wave heating of the surrounding air. The plasma free electric charges (electrons and ions) may have a strong influence on radio waves, up to a point of completely blocking the wave propagation (black-out condition), and radio wave propagation and scattering is of high relevance for communication and tracking in various ways in all these cases. Modeling of wave propagation and scattering in these conditions is thus very important; this work primarily attempts to define the applicability of known techniques and commercial simulation tools to this computationally challenging conditions.