Determining rain location through microwave mesh network signal attenuation

The microwave networks´ received signal level is affected mainly by rainfall attenuation, and links are usually designed with an appropriate rain fade margin to allow for sudden changes in the signal level. This paper proposes using this measured link attenuation to reconstruct the rain field in a 25 square kilometer area, where 10 links form a microwave mesh network. The specific attenuation, which is directly related to rain rate, can be derived from a system of link attenuation measurements using a compressed-sensing based reconstruction algorithm. Network simulations were done using actual rain data and results show that even for different rain intensities, the rain location and corresponding specific attenuation values can be effectively determined. The actual and reconstructed specific attenuation values are compared and the resulting error is practically negligible. Moreover, the method can detect extreme rain events that can lead to disasters. The study has possible applications on rain detection and forecasting, identification of the location of extreme rain events without having to use conventional weather sensors, and in designing rain-induced-disaster warning and response systems.