Analysis of wave fields by Fourier integral operators and their application for radio occultations

<jats:p>Fourier integral operators (FIOs) are used for constructing asymptotic solutions of wave problems and for the generalization of the geometrical optics. Geometric optical rays are described by the canonical Hamilton system, which can be written in different canonical coordinates in the phase space. The theory of FIOs generalizes the formalism of canonical transforms for solving wave problems. The FIO associated with a canonical transform maps the wave field to a different representation. Mapping to the representation of ray impact parameter was used in the formulation of the canonical transform (CT) method for processing radio occultation data. The full‐spectrum inversion (FSI) method can also be looked at as an FIO associated with a canonical transform of a different type. We discuss the general principles of the theory of FIOs and formulate a generalization of the CT and FSI techniques. We derive the FIO that maps radio occultation data measured along the low Earth orbiter orbit without first applying back propagation. This operator is used for the retrieval of refraction angles and atmospheric absorption. We give a closed derivation of the exact phase function of the FIO obtained in the “phase matching” approach by <jats:ext-link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="#rds5052-bib-0016"><jats:italic>Jensen et al.</jats:italic> [2004]</jats:ext-link> We derive a novel FIO algorithm denoted CT2, which is a modification and improvement of FSI. We discuss the use of FIOs for asymptotic direct modeling of radio occultation data. This direct model is numerically much faster then the multiple phase screen technique. This is especially useful for simulating LEO‐LEO occultations at frequencies of 10–30 GHz.</jats:p>