IMPROVED MODELLING OF HARMATTAN DUST EFFECT ON THE CROSS POLARIZATION OF A MICROWAVE ACCESS RADIO LINK OPERATING BETWEEN 15GHz AND 38GHz

📄 Project Abstract

Dust carry non-spherical particles which in the absence of turbulence or shear wind and hydrodynamic forces, tend to orient their major axis in the vertical plane, thus resulting in particles anisotropy which may contribute to Cross Polarization Discrimination (XPD) degradation due to differential phase shift. This research presents an improved model of harmattan dust effect on cross polarization of microwave access radio link operating between 15GHz and 38GHz. Meteorological data such as dust mass concentration, visibility, etc. for ten years (that is, 2003 to 2012) were obtained from Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) and the five months harmattan period data was sorted out. The sorted data were used to deduce important parameters like dielectric constant, relative particle volume and so on. Then, the complex propagation coefficients (attenuation and phase shift) were deduced as a function of wave frequency, media dielectric constant depolarization factor and fractional volume of...