The method currently recommended by the ITU-R for the prediction of rain attenuation in terrestrial line-of sight links considers an equivalent path length over which the rain intensity is assumed to be constant. In other methods, the spatial and temporal variations of the rainfall rate along the path are characterized by an effective rainfall rate that is dependent on the actual path length. B...

In this paper, the Raindrop Size Distribution (DSD) modeling and analysis are presented. Drop sizes are classified into different rain types, namely: drizzle, widespread, shower and thunderstorm. The gamma and Lognormal distribution models are employed using the method of moments estimator, considering the third, fourth and sixth order moments. The results are compared with the existing raindro...

Measuring rain rates over complex terrain is afflicted with large uncertainties, because rain gauges are influenced by orography and weather radars are mostly not able to look into mountain valleys. We apply a new method to estimate near surface rain rates exploiting attenuation data from commercial microwave links in the alpine region of Southern Germany. Received signal level (RSL) data are r...

Humidity remains in the atmosphere even on bright days. Water of all three states can be found naturally in the atmosphere: liquid (rain, fog, and clouds), solid (snowflakes, ice crystals), and gas (water vapour). Water in any state is an obstacle in the link of the electromagnetic wave. When the wave passes through the water particles, a part of its energy is absorbed and a part is scattered. ...

The occurrences of precipitation, also commonly referred as rain, in the form of "convective" and "stratiform" have been identified to exist worldwide. In this study, the radar return echoes or known as reflectivity values acquired from radar scans have been exploited in the process of classifying the type of rain endured. The investigation use radar data from Malaysian Meteorology Department (...

This paper investigates the influence of critical raindrop diameters on the specific rain attenuation in Durban (29◦52′S, 30◦58′E), South Africa. The total rainfall attenuation is evaluated by integrating over all the raindrop sizes and the differential change in the attenuation is observed over a given range of drop size diameters. The major contribution to the specific attenuation for the dro...

New algorithms for rain attenuation correction of reflectivity factor and differential reflectivity are presented. Following the methodology suggested for the first time by Gorgucci et al., the new algorithms are developed based on the self-consistency principle, describing the interrelation between polarimetric measurements along the rain medium. There is an increasing interest in X-band radar...

SUMMARK Attenuation by heavy rain is a major operational problem in radar estimation of rainfall rates, and one which is increasingly severe at wavelengths shorter than 10 cm. Gate-by-gate correction algorithms, including those using both reflectivity ( Z H ) and differential reflectivity ( Z D R ) , are inherently unstable. In addition values of ZH and ZDK arc affected by hail, which causes li...

Rain plays a major impairment factor for propagation of electromagnetic waves in atmosphere for systems operating at frequencies above 10 GHz. Several effects are noted such as depolarization, scintillation, interference due to scattering and extra attenuation which seems to increase with frequency. To mitigate its effect in satellite communication, knowledge of local rainfall statistics is nec...