Hydrometeors

The word hydrometeor is used to include rain, hail, snow, fog

and mist.
Because the relative permittivity of water is large, about 80,
water droplets scatter the energy in a radio wave.
When energy is scattered away from the main direction of
propagation the signal in that direction is attenuated.
The amount of scattering depends on the number and size of
the rain droplets, increasing with drop size and rain rate.
 Attenuation by Rain
The attenuation at the surface of the Earth as a function of
rain rate p in mm/h is:
dB/km = a p b
where a and b are frequency and temperature dependent
constants, given at 0o C by:
Freq (Ghz) a b
2 3.45 x 10-4 0.891
4 1.47 x 10-3 1.016
6 3.71 x 10-3 1.124
12 0.0215 1.136
15 0.0368 1.118
20 0.0719 1.097
30 0.186 1.043
40 0.362 0.972
94 1.402 0.744
 Attenuation by Rain
It can be seen from the variation of a and b with frequency
that the attenuation at GHz frequencies increases significantly
with increasing frequency.
For a rain rate of 100 mm/hr, = 0.019 dB/km at 2 GHz, but
= 22.67 dB/km at 30 GHz.
 Rain Cell Dimensions
The area covered by a rain cell depends on the kind of rain.
Intense rain, usually associated with thunderstorms, tends to
cover smaller areas than the steady rain that falls over large
areas.
The horizontal size of intense rain cells ranges from a few
hundred metres to a few km.
When estimating the attenuation on a radio link the
dimensions of the rain cells must be taken into account as the
most intense rain may not fill an entire link.
Attenuation on satellite links depends on the height of the
rain region in the atmosphere and the slant angle of the path
as well as the size of rain cells in the link.
 Attenuation in Fog and Clouds
The attenuation in fog and clouds is due to a large number of small
droplets, less than 0.1 mm in diameter.
Specific Attenuation, K, for Water Clouds at 0oC
 Attenuation in Fog and Clouds
The attenuation can be expressed in terms of the total water content per
unit volume:

c = K M dB/km

where:
K = specific attenuation coefficient, (dB/km)/(g/m3)
M = liquid water content, g/m3
Attenuation by Atmospheric Gases
Specific Attenuation due to Atmospheric Gases
(Pressure 1013 mb, Temperature 15oC, Water Vapour 7.5 g/m3)
Attenuation by Atmospheric Gases
Note:
Peaks in the attenuation at 22.3, 183.3 and 323.8 GHz due to
water vapour.
Peak due to oxygen at 118.74 GHz and multiple peaks in the
region between 50 and 70 GHz.
Minima in the attenuation in the region of 35, 95, 140 and
220 GHz.
 HOMEWORK
1. A 30 km microwave link operates at 4 GHz using 4m parabolic reflector
antennas. The transmit antenna is mounted at a height of 40 m. An
atmospheric profile for average conditions is given by:-
n(h)=1 + a exp(bh), where a=315x106 and b=0.112 km1
What is the refractive index gradient at ground level given by this profile
and what k value does this correspond to?
2. If the constant a in the formula for the refractive index profile is
unchanged at 315 N units, what value of b would be required for ducting
conditions to occur?
3. What additional attenuation would be introduced for rain at a rate of 60
mm/hr over the length of the link?
4. How much larger would the diameter of the transmitting and receiving
antennas need to be if this additional attenuation were to be
compensated for by additional antenna gain?
 Diffraction
The effect of diffraction can be understood by considering
Huygens principle
Each element of a wavefront at a point in time may be regarded as the
centre of a secondary disturbance, which gives rise to secondary
wavelets
The position of the wavefront at any later time is the envelope of all
such wavelets

Huygens
principle for a
spherical wave
 Types of diffraction
When adding up the effect of all the secondary sources,
different levels of approximation can be made. Because of this,
diffraction problems are divided into three types: Fraunhofer,
Fresnel and near region diffraction. These are shown in the
figure for diffraction at an aperture.
 Types of diffraction
Fraunhofer diffraction, rays arriving from the secondary
source (the aperture D) may be considered to arrive in phase at
a point P1 . Thus point P is sufficiently far away that rays
reaching it can be considered as being essentially parallel

If the distance to the receiving point P2 is sufficiently large

that the amplitude factor involving 1/r may still be considered
constant, but not so large that the phase difference between the
different Huygens sources over the aperture may be neglected,
P2 is in the region of Fresnel diffraction.
 Types of diffraction
The region so close to the aperture that both the amplitude and
phase factors are variable with the position of the receiving
point can be termed the near region.

The dividing line between Fresnel and Fraunhofer diffraction

depends on the accuracy required but is often taken as:
2 D2
r =

 Huygens principle applied to
diffraction over a knife-edge
The knife-edge is an absorbing screen which allows no energy
to pass through it
Plane wavefronts become
curved by the edge so that
inside the shadow region, rays
appear to emerge from a
point close to the edge, filling
in the shadow region with
diffracted rays. The principle
may be applied in
mathematical form by adding
the contributions of an
infinite number of secondary
sources along the wavefront
above the edge.
 Huygens principle applied to
diffraction over a knife-edge
The source is assumed to be a very long line source parallel to
the long straight edge. d0 and d1 are sufficiently large that
Fresnel diffraction theory is valid, but not large enough for
application of Fraunhofer theory. Then the variation of field
strength along the line AB can be obtained as is shown in
figure (b) as a function of the parameter v where:-

2 ( d1 + d 2 )
v = u
d1 d 2
 Huygens principle applied to
diffraction over a knife-edge
(a) Fresnel Diffraction at a Straight Edge (b) Magnitude of Relative Field Strength vs. v
 Diffracted Field on a Transmission
Path
The signal diffracted over a knife edge depends on the height
of the edge relative to the geometrical line between
transmitter and receiver. The calculation is made using the
parameter v which depends on the height of the edge and its
distance from the ends of the path
 Diffracted Field as a Function of Height

( = 0.3m, d1 = 1000m, d2 = 100m)

1
2 (d 1 + d 2 ) 2
v = h
d d
1 2
v = 0 .2708 h
 Diffraction at a knife edge
When transmitter and receiver are not at the same height, h'
must be determined as the projection of the knife edge above
the straight line path from transmitter to receiver
 Diffraction at a knife edge
/
=

If the transmitter, receiver and knife edge heights above the
ground are ht, hr and hk respectively, providing the distances
d1,d2 are much greater than these heights, h' can be
measured in the vertical direction so that:-

=

 Received Field Strength
The received field strength is given in terms of the free space
field Eo by
1 v
Eo E
E = (1 + j ) e j ( / 2) v2
dv = o (1 + j )[C (v1 ) jS (v1 ) C (vo ) + jS (vo )]
2 vo
2
For problems involving radio propagation over knife edges, v1
is infinity so that C(v1) -j S(v1) = 0.5 -0.5j. For non-negative
values of v, the Fresnel integrals can be calculated
approximately as:
1 1
C(v) = + f (v)sin v2 g(v)cos v2 S (v) = f (v)cos v2 g(v)sin v2
2 2 2 2 2 2
1+ 0.926v 1
where f (v) & g (v)
2 +1.792v + 3.104v2 2 + 4.142v + 3.492v2 + 6.670v3
 Received Field Strength
For negative values of v, the same approx. can be made using
C(v)=-C(-v) and S(v)=-S(-v)
Well within the shadow region (v >1), the diffraction loss can
be calculated to within 1 dB from

1 0.225
Lke = 20 log = 20 log
v 2 v
 HOMEWORK
In one cell of a cellular network, there is radio shadowing
by a 75m high hill. Assuming that the hill can be treated as a
knife edge diffractor, determine the relative magnitude of
the field strength compared with that for free space
propagation for a transmission frequency of 900 MHz when
the transmitting antenna is at a height of 40m and the
receiving antenna is 6 km from the transmitter at a height
of 2m and the hill top is at the centre of the transmitter to
receiver path. Ignore the effect of ground or other
reflections.
How much higher must the base station antenna be
placed to reduce the diffraction loss by 6 dB?
Knife-edge diffraction and obstruction
of the Fresnel zones
The nth Fresnel zone is the region inside an ellipsoid defined
by the locus of the points where the distance a + b between
transmitter and receiver is greater than the direct path d1 + d2
by n half wavelengths.
Knife-edge diffraction and obstruction
of the Fresnel zones
Then the radius of the nth zone rn can be found from

+ = + +

Assuming rn<< d1 and rn<< d1 , then to a good approximation

n d1d 2
rn =
d1 + d 2
Knife-edge diffraction and obstruction
of the Fresnel zones
The Fresnal zones can be thought of as containing the
propagated energy in the wave. The rays arriving after
propagation inside the first Fresnel zone will all be
approximately in phase so that any absorbing obstructions
which do not enter this zone will have little effect on the
received signal. The Fresnel zone clearance (h/rn) can be
expressed in terms of the diffraction parameter as:-

1
2 ( d1 + d 2 ) 2
h
v = h = 2n
d 1 d 2 rn
Knife-edge diffraction and obstruction
of the Fresnel zones

When the obstruction occupies 0.6 times the first Fresnel

zone, the v parameter is then approx. 0.8 for which the
diffraction loss is 0 dB. This clearance is then often used as a
criterion to decide whether an object will have a significant
effect on the received signal. Thus the shaded region in the
figure can be considered as a forbidden region which, if kept
clear, will result in little attenuation.
 Multiple Diffraction
The simple knife edge diffraction theory is just for a single
prominent diffraction edge, whereas in the case of cellular
propagation in urban areas or indoor propagation, diffraction
by a number of edges is much more likely to occur.
Propagation in an urban environment can be considered to
result from diffraction over many buildings.
Then, except for some high rise regions, a diffracting screen
model where rows of city buildings are modeled as a series of
absorbing diffracting screens of uniform height can be
employed. This is the basis of the model of Walfisch and
Bertoni, which considers a regular spacing of diffractors as
might occur for rows of city buildings in a regular grid.