Measurement and analysis of temporal fading due to moving vegetation

In order to study the wind speed dependency of radiowave propagation in vegetation environments, measurements have been performed on various types of deciduous trees at 0.9 GHz (co-polarised) and 1.8 GHz (co- and cross-polarised). Strong wind speed dependency of the RF signal was found as wind speed increased from low to medium speed. However the signal behaviour did not vary significantly from medium to high wind speeds. At 0.9 GHz, the fade statistics were not greatly dependent on wind speed. The crosspolarised configuration of the receiver was less affected by vegetation during low wind speed than the co-polarised configuration. Finally, it was concluded that RF propagation transmission through vegetation is strongly dependent on wind speed characteristics, frequency and to an extent on polarisation.