Propagation of electromagnetic waves in inhomogenous and anisotropic plasmas

The problem of the transfer of polarized radiation in inhomogeneous birefringent media is considered. It is assumed throughout that the medium is slowly varying and hence use the methods of geometrical optics. For weakly anisotropic media a new technique is developed, in which the dimensionless parameters describing the inhomogeneity and anistropy are assumed to be comparable. The essence of this method is the introduction of an ''average'' ray path. This method is used to treat propagation of polarized radiation in a cold plasma with a sheared magnetic field. (author)