Multipath effects due to rain at 30-50 GHz frequency communication links

• Published in: IEEE transactions on antennas and propagation Vol. 41; no. 8; pp. 1132 - 1138
• Main Authors: de Wolf, D.A., Ligthart, L.P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.08.1993; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Attenuation; Bandwidth; Degradation; Distortion; Exact sciences and technology; Frequency; Propagation through the atmosphere; Radio link; Radiocommunications; Radiowave propagation; Rain; RF signals; Scattering; Storms; Telecommunications; Telecommunications and information theory; Degradation; Line of sight propagation; Rain; Wave scattering; Radio link; Microwave; Multipath propagation; Radiotransmission
• ISSN: 0018-926X; 1558-2221
• DOI: 10.1109/8.244655

This study makes predictions about signal degradation along terrestrial radio links, operated at wide bandwidth and 30-50-GHz frequencies, caused by inhomogeneities in fairly severe rain storms. While the line-of-sight path may experience moderate to severe attenuation, the real problem at hand is to estimate the effect of multipath via scatterings from rain drops on side paths. These longer-path contributions can cause pulse distortions and related high-bandwidth effects which are deleterious to the information content, even upon successful reception of attenuated signals. The results show that significant degradation of high-bandwidth signals accompanying attenuations of more than approximately 40 dB are possible under intermittent rainfall conditions.< >