1-Minute Rain Rate Distribution for Communication Link Design Based on Ground and Satellite Measurements in West Africa
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Date
2020
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Publisher
Begell Journal
Abstract
West Africa is in the tropical region and it is characterized by intense rainfall. Rain is a significant factor causing signal degradation on microwave links due to its variability; it causes scattering, absorption, and refraction of electromagnetic waves. Experimental studies have shown that rainfall intensities above 64 mm/h at 0.01% in this region result in noticeable digital television signal fading, squelching and complete outages. Hence the need for estimating rain rate distribution across West Africa. This paper analyzed the rain rate in six countries in West Africa, namely Benin, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, and Togo. Three locations were selected in each country. Rain data were obtained from the Tropical Rain Measuring Mission-Precipitation Radar (TRMM-PR) and the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) missions, and Tropospheric Data Acquisition Network (TRODAN) weather stations in Nigeria. This study used ITU-R and Moupfouma models for the conversion of the 5-minute rain rate to 1-minute integration time at a probability of exceedance ranging from 1% to 0.001%. The cumulative rain rate distribution from the measured rain rate is presented alongside the predictions of the models. ITU-R and Moupfouma predicted similar results at 0.1% probability of exceedance. ITU-R overestimates the rain rate above 0.01% probability of exceedance. On the other hand, the Moupfouma models prediction plots at 0.01% overlap for all locations, indicating that there will be a signal loss at 0.01% probability of exceedance across these locations. The result shows that the 5- minute conversion provides satisfactory performance and is suitable for estimating the 1-minute rain rate statistics required for propagation planning over West Africa.
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Keywords
Rain rate, 1-minute, rainfall measurement, communication links, West Africa
Citation
Sanyaolu, M.E., Dairo, O.F., Willoughby, A.A. and Kolawole, L.B. (2020) 1-Minute Rain Rate Distribution for Communication Link Design based on Ground and Satellite Measurements in West Africa, Telecommunications and Radio Engineering, 79(6):533-543, https://doi.org/10.1615/TelecomRadEng.v79.i6.70.