A methodology for precise estimation of rain attenuation on terrestrial millimetre wave links from raindrop size distribution measurements

Attenuation by atmospheric rain is the most significant impairment in millimetre wave frequencies (mmWave). Modern instruments could provide detailed measurements of rain, such as raindrop size distributions (DSDs). The analysis of DSDs could estimate their effects on past or co-located links measurements. This study presents propagation analysis in the mmWave bands using measurements of two terrestrial links working at 26 and 38 GHz carried out in Johor, Malaysia. Statistics obtained have been analysed in detail to extract any excess attenuation. The DSDs provided by a disdrometer have been used to estimate rain attenuation. The derived results show that the estimation can provide reasonable accuracy after extracting the wet antenna effects and having the advantage of the availability of measurements from various types of equipment

Evaluation of error components in rainfall retrieval from collocated commercial microwave links

Opportunistic rainfall sensing using commercial microwave links (CMLs) operating in telecommunication networks has the potential to complement conventional rainfall monitoring, however, the diversity of sensors and their errors are difficult to handle. This analysis empirically evaluates errors of CML observations that manifest discrepancies between collocated sensors without reference rainfall measurements. Collocated CMLs are evaluated as independent rainfall sensors, which enable us to assess the effect of hardware homogeneity and measurement consistency using CML observations at twelve sites within a real telecommunication network in Prague. The evaluation considers 33 rainfall events distinguishing between stratiform and convective rainfall type in the period 2014 and 2016, monitored in 1-min temporal resolution. Collocated CMLs of identical and different frequencies are evaluated, and different rainfall types are discussed. The collocated commercial microwave links are in excellent agreement. The inherent error of rain-induced attenuation for paired independent commercial microwave links is 0.4 dB. The high correlation of the rainfall intensity measurements between the collocated sensors was obtained in a range between 0.96 and 0.99, and the root mean square error ranges between 0.4 mm h&minus;1 and 1.7 mm h&minus;1. This confirms homogeneous behaviour of the hardware in a real network. Therefore, the data of CMLs of the same characteristics can be processed with identi-cal parameters for rainfall retrieval models.</p

Prediction of rainfall intensity measurement errors using commercial microwave communication links

Commercial microwave radio links forming cellular communication networks are known to be a valuable instrument for measuring near-surface rainfall. However, operational communication links are more uncertain relatively to the dedicated installations since their geometry and frequencies are optimized for high communication performance rather than observing rainfall. Quantification of the uncertainties for measurements that are non-optimal in the first place is essential to assure usability of the data. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; In this work we address modeling of instrumental impairments, i.e. signal variability due to antenna wetting, baseline attenuation uncertainty and digital quantization, as well as environmental ones, i.e. variability of drop size distribution along a link affecting accuracy of path-averaged rainfall measurement and spatial variability of rainfall in the link's neighborhood affecting the accuracy of rainfall estimation out of the link path. Expressions for root mean squared error (RMSE) for estimates of path-averaged and point rainfall have been derived. To verify the RMSE expressions quantitatively, path-averaged measurements from 21 operational communication links in 12 different locations have been compared to records of five nearby rain gauges over three rainstorm events. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; The experiments show that the prediction accuracy is above 90% for temporal accumulation less than 30 min and lowers for longer accumulation intervals. Spatial variability in the vicinity of the link, baseline attenuation uncertainty and, possibly, suboptimality of wet antenna attenuation model are the major sources of link-gauge discrepancies. In addition, the dependence of the optimal coefficients of a conventional wet antenna attenuation model on spatial rainfall variability and, accordingly, link length has been shown. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; The expressions for RMSE of the path-averaged rainfall estimates can be useful for integration of measurements from multiple heterogeneous links into data assimilation algorithms

Errors and uncertainties in microwave link rainfall estimation explored using drop size measurements and high-resolution radar data

Microwave links can be used for the estimation of path-averaged rainfall by using either the path-integrated attenuation or the difference in attenuation of two signals with different frequencies and/or polarizations. Link signals have been simulated using measured time series of raindrop size distributions (DSDs) over a period of nearly 2 yr, in combination with wind velocity data and Taylor’s hypothesis. For this purpose, Taylor’s hypothesis has been tested using more than 1.5 yr of high-resolution radar data. In terms of correlation between spatial and temporal profiles of rainfall intensities, the validity of Taylor’s hypothesis quickly decreases with distance. However, in terms of error statistics, the hypothesis is seen to hold up to distances of at least 10 km. Errors and uncertainties (mean bias error and root-mean-square error, respectively) in microwave link rainfall estimates due to spatial DSD variation are at a minimum at frequencies (and frequency combinations) where the power-law relation for the conversion to rainfall intensity is close to linear. Errors generally increase with link length, whereas uncertainties decrease because of the decrease of scatter about the retrieval relations because of averaging of spatially variable DSDs for longer links. The exponent of power-law rainfall retrieval relations can explain a large part of the variation in both bias and uncertainty, which means that the order of magnitude of these error statistics can be predicted from the value of this exponent, regardless of the link length

A monostatic microwave transmission experiment for line integrated precipitation and humidity remote sensing

AbstractNear-surface water vapor and precipitation are central hydrometeorological observables which are still difficult to quantify accurately above the point scale. Both play an important role in modeling and remote sensing of the hydrologic cycle. We present details on the development of a new microwave transmission experiment that is capable of providing line integrated estimates of both humidity and precipitation near the surface. The system is located at a hydrometeorological test site (TERENO-prealpine) in Southern Germany. Path length is kept short at 660m to minimize the likelihood of different precipitation types and intensities along the path. It uses a monostatic configuration with a combined transmitter/receiver unit and a 70cm trihedral reflector. The transmitter/receiver unit simultaneously operates at 22.235GHz and 34.8GHz with a pulse repetition rate of 25kHz and alternating horizontal and vertical polarization, which enable the analysis of the impact of the changing drop size distribution on the rain rate retrieval. Due to the coherence and the high phase stability of the system, it allows for a sensitive observation of the propagation phase delay. Thereof, time series of line integrated refractivity can be determined. This proxy is then post-processed to absolute humidity and compared to station observations. We present the design of the system and show an analysis of selected periods for both, precipitation and humidity observations. The theoretically expected dependence of attenuation and differential attenuation on the DSD was reproduced with experimental data. A decreased performance was observed when using a fixed A–R power law. Humidity data derived from the phase delay measurement showed good agreement with in situ measurements

Opportunistic rain rate estimation from measurements of satellite downlink attenuation: A survey

Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in techniques and systems for rainfall surveillance on regional scale, with increasingly stringent requirements in terms of the following: (i) accuracy of rainfall rate measurements, (ii) adequate density of sensors over the territory, (iii) space‐time continuity and completeness of data and (iv) capability to elaborate rainfall maps in near real time. The devices deployed to monitor the precipitation fields are traditionally networks of rain gauges distributed throughout the territory, along with weather radars and satellite remote sensors operating in the optical or infrared band, none of which, however, are suitable for full compliance to all of the requirements cited above. More recently, a different approach to rain rate estimation techniques has been proposed and investigated, based on the measurement of the attenuation induced by rain on signals of pre‐existing radio networks either in terrestrial links, e.g., the backhaul connections in cellular networks, or in satellite‐to‐earth links and, among the latter, notably those between geostationary broadcast satellites and domestic subscriber terminals in the Ku and Ka bands. Knowledge of the above rain‐induced attenuation permits the retrieval of the corresponding rain intensity provided that a number of meteorological and geometric parameters are known and ultimately permits estimating the rain rate locally at the receiver site. In this survey paper, we specifically focus on such a type of “opportunistic” systems for rain field monitoring, which appear very promising in view of the wide diffusion over the territory of low‐cost domestic terminals for the reception of satellite signals, prospectively allowing for a considerable geographical capillarity in the distribution of sensors, at least in more densely populated areas. The purpose of the paper is to present a broad albeit synthetic overview of the numerous issues inherent in the above rain monitoring approach, along with a number of solutions and algorithms proposed in the literature in recent years, and ultimately to provide an exhaustive account of the current state of the art. Initially, the main relevant aspects of the satellite link are reviewed, including those related to satellite dynamics, frequency bands, signal formats, propagation channel and radio link geometry, all of which have a role in rainfall rate estimation algorithms. We discuss the impact of all these factors on rain estimation accuracy while also highlighting the substantial differences inherent in this approach in comparison with traditional rain monitoring techniques. We also review the basic formulas relating rain rate intensity to a variation of the received signal level or of the signal‐to-noise ratio. Furthermore, we present a comprehensive literature survey of the main research issues for the aforementioned scenario and provide a brief outline of the algorithms proposed for their solution, highlighting their points of strength and weakness. The paper includes an extensive list of bibliographic references from which the material presented herein was taken

Rain Statistics Investigation and Rain Attenuation Modeling for Millimeter Wave Short-range Fixed Links

Millimeter wave (mmWave) communication is a key technology for fifth generation (5G) and beyond communication networks. However, the communication quality of the radio link can be largely affected by rain attenuation, which should be carefully taken into consideration when calculating the link budget. In this paper, we present results of weather data collected with a PWS100 disdrometer and mmWave channel measurements at 25.84 GHz (K band) and 77.52 GHz (E band) using a custom-designed channel sounder. The rain statistics, including rain intensity, rain events, and rain drop size distribution (DSD) are investigated for one year. The rain attenuation is predicted using the DSD model with Mie scattering and from the model in ITU-R P.838-3. The distance factor in ITU-R P.530-17 is found to be inappropriate for a short-range link. The wet antenna effect is investigated and additional protection of the antenna radomes is demonstrated to reduce the wet antenna effect on the measured attenuation

Challenges in Diurnal Humidity Analysis from Cellular Microwave Links (CML) over Germany

Near-surface humidity is a crucial variable in many atmospheric processes, mostly related to the development of clouds and rain. The humidity at the height of a few tens of meters above ground level is highly influenced by surface characteristics. Measuring the near-surface humidity at high resolution, where most of the humidity’s sinks and sources are found, is a challenging task using classical tools. A novel approach for measuring the humidity is based on commercial microwave links (CML), which provide a large part of the cellular networks backhaul. This study focuses on employing humidity measurements with high spatio–temporal resolution in Germany. One major goal is to assess the errors and the environmental influence by comparing the CML-derived humidity to in-situ humidity measurements at weather stations and reanalysis (COSMO-Rea6) products. The method of retrieving humidity from the CML has been improved as compared to previous studies due to the use of new data at high temporal resolution. The results show a similar correlation on average and generally good agreement between both the CML retrievals and the reanalysis, and 32 weather stations near Siegen, West Germany (CML—0.84, Rea6—0.85). Higher correlations are observed for CML-derived humidity during the daytime (0.85), especially between 9–17 LT (0.87) and a maximum at 12 LT (0.90). During the night, the correlations are lower on average (0.81), with a minimum at 3 LT (0.74). These results are discussed with attention to the diurnal boundary layer (BL) height variation which has a strong effect on the BL humidity temporal profile. Further metrics including root mean square errors, mean values and standard deviations, were also calculated

Rainfall over the Netherlands & beyond: a remote sensing perspective

Earthlings like to measure everything (especially now that we are undergoing the era of big-data revolution) maybe because it is such a nice hobby... although a more serious school of thought believes that when measuring our environment we get to understand physics and ourselves. This thesis explores the uncertainties in rainfall measurements from state-of-the-art technologies like commercial microwave links (CML) and meteorological satellites. Rainfall has been measured by rain gauges since quite some time ago; and by weather radars since the end of WWII. Here we evaluate the performance of gridded-rainfall products for the land surface of the Netherlands. These gridded-rainfall products are CML-rainfall maps produced by the Royal Netherlands Meteorology Institute (KNMI), and the IMERG product developed by Global Precipitation Measurement mission (GPM). Overall, this thesis shows that CML-rainfall products are very reliable sources with regards to rainfall estimates for the land surface of the Netherlands... even better than the satellite products for rainfall estimation. We are also confident in the promising potential these technologies hold for places around the world where conventional technologies like gauges or radars are not scarce or not affordable. </p