Quasi-synchronous measurements of radiowave attenuation by falling snow at 138 and 247 GHz

Abstract

Attenuation of millimeter waves by falling snow in comparison with attenuation of these waves by other hydrometeors is little studied at present. This is explained on the one hand by known difficulties of constructing the adequate snowfall model and calculating the absorption and scattering characteristics of snow particles and on the other hand by experimental difficulties connected with obtaining data on parameters of separate snowflakes and a snowfall as a whole. Recently the investigations in the field of computer modeling of the millimeter wave attenuation by snowfalls taking into account the complicated shapes of the flakes led to the first practically significant results. As for the experimental data on snow attenuation of millimeter waves, they are rather scanty, so that for the exposure of regularities of the attenuation and for estimate of possibilities of the theoretical models the further accumulation of such data is necessary. This paper presents the results of the comparative quasi-synchronous measurements of radiowave attenuation by falling snow at frequencies 138 and 247 GHz.