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Radio wave propagation
Radio wave propagation
• Radio propagation is the behavior of radio waves when they are transmitted, or propagated from one point on the Earth to another, or into various parts of the atmosphere.
• Radio waves are affected by the phenomena of reflection,
refraction, diffraction, absorption, polarization and scattering. ATMOSPHERIC LOSSES • Multiple losses occur due to the Earth‟s atmosphere. • Losses maybe because of the adverse weather conditions or because of the energy absorption done by the various gases present in the atmosphere. • Weather related losses are called “atmospheric attenuation”. Absorption losses are called “atmospheric absorption”. • At various frequencies, different components of atmosphere cause impairments to the radio wave signals. • Example: water vapour at 22.3 GHz and oxygen (O2) at60 GHz • Formula for absorption loss is: [AA] = [AA]90 cosec θ ,Where θ is the elevation angle , [AA]90 is the absorption loss in decibels at an elevation angle of 90o at the earth station. • A fading phenomenon, which causes the radio waves to focus and defocus because of the differences in the atmospheric refraction index is called “atmospheric scintillation”. Figure 4.1: Layers of Earth’s atmosphere 94 IONOSPHERE EFFECT • Ionosphere is one of the layers in the Earth‟s atmosphere. It is situated between 90 kms to 400 kms above the surface of the Earth. All the communication signals between satellites and earth stations have to pass through this layer • This layer contains free electrons which are charged due to solar radiation. These ions are not uniformly distributed across the ionosphere, but move together across the ionosphere in clusters. • Such clusters are called clouds of electrons or “travelling ionosphere disturbances”. When signals pass through such electron clouds, fluctuations are caused • Electron clouds are created when accelerated charged particles disturb stray electrons already floating in the atmosphere. • These stray electrons can be photo-electrons from synchrotron radiation or electrons from ionized gas molecules and have adverse effect on the signals passing through them especially if the density of these clouds is high. • The other effects seen on the signal also includes scintillation, absorption, propagation delay, dispersion, and frequencychange and polarization rotation. • These effects decrease as the frequency increases. Absorption • Electromagnetic waves are absorbed in the atmosphere according to wavelength. Two compounds are responsible for the majority of signal absorption: oxygen (O2) and water(H2o). • It is seen for frequencies at 22 GHz due to water, and at 63 GHz due to oxygen. The concrete amount of water vapour and oxygen in the atmosphere normally declines with an increase in altitude because of the decrease in pressure. • Propagation Delay • Propagation delay is the time required for a signal to travel from the sender to the receiver measured in microsecond • For satellites using geostationary orbits, the round trip from the ground to the satellite and back can be of the order of a quarter of a second. • Dispersion: Here the signals are distributed over a wide area • Scintillation: it is the variation in the amplitude, phase, polarization, angle of arrival of radio waves. They are caused by the irregularities in the ionosphere which change with time. • The major effect of Ionosphere scintillation is the fading of signal which may last for several minutes. • Fading of signal is the major effect o ionosphere scintillation. The effect of fading can sometimes be very severe and may last upto several minutes. • RAIN ATTENUATION • The rate at which the rain water would get accumulated in a rain gauge in the area of interest is called rain rate. Rain attenuation is a function of rain rate. It is calculated in percentage time. • Example: Rain rate of 0.001 percent means the rain rate would exceed by 0.001 percent of a year and it is be denoted as R0.001. • Percentage time is denoted as p and rain rate as Rp • Specific attenuation α is given by: α = a Rb dB/km Where a and b depend upon frequency and polarization. • Total attenuation, denoted by A is given by: A = α L dB Where L is the effective path length of the signal through rain. Path length through rain
Here, Ls -> Slant Height and it depends upon
the antenna angle of elevation θ and rain height. hR -> Rain Height at which freezing occurs. LG -> Horizontal projection of Ls Thus effective path length L is given by: L = Ls rp Where rpis the reduction factor of percentage time p andLG That is; LG = Lscos El Other impairments: • Due to the low water content in them, rain, ice and hail have a little effect on attenuation. Attenuation can be caused by clouds but generally its effect is comparatively low