Abstract

In this work, the impact of selected atmospheric parameters on attenuation of terrestrial and satellite signals over George, Western Cape in South Africa for the purpose of planning reliable and resilient free space optical communication links has been presented. The meteorological parameters data (visibility, temperature, rainfall rate, relative humidity, pressure, wind speed and wind direction) were obtained for ten years (2010 – 2019) from the South African Weather Service (SAWS). Total attenuation for the studied location was calculated from attenuation due to aerosol scattering, attenuation due to rain and attenuation due to scintillation. Three different wavelengths namely: 850 nm, 1200 nm and 1500 nm within the optical windows were used in calculating the wavelength dependent functions (attenuation due to aerosol scattering and attenuation due to scintillation). The result shows that attenuation due to rain was observed to account for 58% of the total attenuation and it is wavelength independent. Attenuation due to rain based on subtropics model was found to be about half of the calculated value based on temperate model. Further result shows total attenuation for worst visibility period (summer) throughout the year in the studied location is 7.7 dB/km (aerosol scattering: 0.53dB/km; rain: 4.5 dB/km and scintillation: 2.7 dB/km) at 850 nm. Overall results will be applicable in the area of the design and implementation of a reliable free space optical (FSO) links in the studied location.

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