Rainfall microstructures for microwave and millimeter wave link budget at tropical and subtropical sites

Author

Alonge, Akintunde A. ; Afullo, Thomas J.

Author_Institution

Discipline of Electr., Electron. & Comput. Eng., Univ. of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa

fYear

2013

fDate

9-12 Sept. 2013

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

5

Abstract

Tropical and subtropical sites are known as areas of intense rainfall, where both satellite and terrestrial links suffer from severe levels of signal degradation. In this study, Butare (2°36´S, 29°44´E) and Durban (29°52´S, 30°58´E), with tropical and subtropical characteristics respectively, are compared at different measurement periods. Rainfall microstructural parameters such as rainfall rate, rainfall Drop Size Distribution (DSD) and radar reflectivity, are examined. It is found that at 99.99% rain availability (or R_0.01), these parameters are slightly higher at Butare than Durban. However, specific attenuation computations tend to be higher at Durban compared to Butare, between 40 GHz and 1 THz.

Keywords

microwave links; microwave propagation; millimetre wave propagation; rain; tropospheric electromagnetic wave propagation; Butare; DSD; Durban; frequency 1 THz; frequency 40 GHz; microwave link budget; millimeter wave link budget; radar reflectivity; rainfall drop size distribution; rainfall microstructural parameters; rainfall rate; satellite link; subtropical sites; terrestrial link; tropical sites; Attenuation; Educational institutions; Microstructure; Radar; Rain; Reflectivity; Sea measurements; Rainfall attenuation; microwave links; radar reflectivity; rainfall DSD; tropical and subtropical regions;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

AFRICON, 2013

Conference_Location

Pointe-Aux-Piments

ISSN

2153-0025

Print_ISBN

978-1-4673-5940-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/AFRCON.2013.6757852

Filename

6757852