Rayleigh rangeGaussian beam

When talking about antennas the far field is the region that is at a large distance from the antenna. In the far field the radiation pattern does not change shape as the distance increases. There are three conditions which must be satisfied to ensure that the antenna is at a distance which qualifies as the far field.

Rayleighlength numerical aperture

The radiating near field or Fresnel region is the region between the reactive near and far field. The reactive fields do not dominate in this region. However unlike the far field region, the shape of the radiation pattern varies significantly with distance.

The reactive near field ad the radiating near field. The reactive near field is the region where the fields are reactive i.e the E and H fields are out of phase by 90 degrees to each other. For propagating or radiating fields, the fields must be orthogonal to each other but in phase.