Image: 2013 Atmospheric absorption of electromagnetic waves

Description: Graph of atmospheric attenuation of electromagnetic waves as a function of frequency and wavelength. Vectorization requested by en.wp user:Spinningspark at the en.wp Graphic Lab Illustration Workshop on 7 May 2020 (see 'diff'). Source of diagram (various indicia from source have been purposely omitted): Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division: Electronic Warfare and Radar Systems Engineering Handbook (page 5-1.1). United States Navy (2013). Archived from the original on May 20, 2020. Narrative from source: "... energy traveling through the atmosphere suffers from atmospheric attenuation caused primarily by absorption by the gasses. For lower frequencies (below 10 GHz), the attenuation is reasonably predictable. For high frequencies in the millimeter wave range, the attenuation not only increases, but becomes more dependent upon peculiar absorbing characteristics of H2O, O2, and the like. Figure 1 shows the areas of peak absorption in the millimeter wave spectrum."
Usage Terms: Public domain