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A radar study of attenuation on terrestrial microwave links
Author(s) -
Kilambi A.,
Marshall J. S.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
radio science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.371
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1944-799X
pISSN - 0048-6604
DOI - 10.1029/rs012i001p00053
Subject(s) - attenuation , radar , storm , microwave , rain gauge , meteorology , geodesy , precipitation , environmental science , geology , remote sensing , statistics , physics , mathematics , computer science , telecommunications , optics
A hypothetical array of terrestrial microwave links has been designed at radar ranges 36 to 110 km and all azimuths, such that useful attenuation statistics can be derived from the weather‐radar record on digital tape of the few hours' passage of one storm system across the array. These statistics cannot be used as the basis for design in the way that the data for a whole season might be used, but one can compare one storm with another, and hope to relate attenuation to meteorological aspects of the storm. From one case of a line of intense storms it has been found that: (i) Total duration of attenuation in excess of A decreased approximately exponentially with increasing A for a given link length, and for a given value of A increased approximately linearly with link length, at any rate up to 48 km. (ii) Durations varied with link direction, but less than ±20%. (iii) Individual fades of attenuation in excess of A were more numerous but more brief for links perpendicular to the direction of motion of the precipitation pattern than for those parallel. (iv) “Synthetic links” based on raingauge data have statistics like links parallel to the direction of pattern motion. Thus they are representative of links generally for “total duration” statistics (see i) where direction is unimportant (see ii) but not for individual‐fade duration and frequency (see iii). These findings for one storm passage were confirmed by two others: a less intense line and a case of widely scattered light showers.