1-Minute Rain Rate Distribution for Communication Link Design Based on Ground and Satellite Measurements in West Africa
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Date
2020
Authors
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Publisher
Begell House, Inc.
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 results 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 from 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 suitable for estimating the 1-minute rain rate statistics required
for propagation planning over West Africa.
Description
Keywords
Rain rate, 1-minute, Rainfall measurement, Communication links, West Africa