A review of the classical Doppler effect based on the mathematical description of the phase function
The classical Doppler effect is explicitly reformulated by determining the phase function associated with a moving source. General expressions for frequency shift and aberration are derived and compared with the results obtained from a geometrical treatment, showing complete consistency between both approaches. The phase formalism provides direct expressions for the local frequency and the wave vector through the temporal and spatial derivatives of the phase, respectively. In this framework, aberration appears as a consequence of the local propagation direction, while the Doppler shift is determined by the temporal evolution of the phase perceived by the observer. The resulting wave vector naturally incorporates the effects of source motion and leads to a compact formulation of the general Doppler effect in terms of relative velocities. This approach yields a unified description of moving sources, moving observers, and moving propagation media, and can be applied in arbitrary reference frames.