Tropospheric Scintillation Predictions of the Nigerian Climate; A Case Study of Mowe, Ifo Local Government, South West Nigeria.

Abstract

Signal deterioration will result from tropospheric scintillation in microwave communication connections with small fade margins. In tropical areas, very few scintillation research has been carried out. Twelve months (Jan 2014 – Dec 2014) of data obtained from the Tropospheric Data Acquisition Network (TRODAN) weather station in Mowe, Nigeria, with a frequency of 13 GHz and an elevation angle of 60.7° were used to study tropospheric scintillation. The data are processed, and the predictions of a few scintillations prediction models that are already in use were compared. Scintillation was seen to be at its peak in April and August with 0.95 dB and 0.88 dB respectively. The strongest intensities show skewness, which is also typical in the absence of rain. According to the analysis, the ITU-R model predicts the scintillation intensity for a fade at 0.01 % of the time to 1 percentage of time, with the lowest error rate. As Mowe is located in the tropical region of Nigeria, it is established in this study that ITU-R and Kasarawa have the best predictions for the climatic condition there. The observation has additional relevance because it is supported by the ITU-2003 R recommendation for the radio communication sector, which calls for a 99.99% availability percentage for quality of service. Accordingly, it will be anticipated that an additional fade margin of roughly 0.8 dB must be made to account for amplitude scintillation in the area. The data from this study will aid in determining the region's required antenna performance and size for satellite communication links to reduce fade.