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Marcel, you wrote:
"The practical problem is very likely that you don't have the atmospheric
data from 50 to 150 miles out of to sea. When calculating refraction
numerically one deals "generally" with an atmospheric model assuming that
the atmosphere is horizontally homogeneous, i.e. an air layer at a certain
height has everywhere the same temperature and pressure independent of the
distance from the observer."

I agree. This might be fun to explore. The standard approach to calculating
refraction assumes no variation in the atmosphere in the horizontal
direction. That is, the vertical temperature profile is the same at all
points across the surface of the (spherical) Earth. However, it's not really
a big deal to do a more sophisticated integration. Rather than working with
an integration method like Auer-Standish, what's required is a complete
ray-tracing system for a continuous medium. That would cover all
possibilities. I wouldn't be at all surprised if there's software that does
that already for purposes of digital landscape simulation.

 -FER


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