Integrated Water Vapor Estimation Through Microwave Propagation Measurements: First Experiment on a Ground-to-Ground Radio Link

Measurement of water vapor (WV) in the lower troposphere on a continuous temporal basis would improve our knowledge of the atmospheric dynamics and the performance of numerical weather prediction models. In recent studies, a new measurement concept, the normalized differential spectral attenuation (...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on geoscience and remote sensing 2022, Vol.60, p.1-13
Main Authors: Montomoli, Francesco, Macelloni, Giovanni, Facheris, Luca, Cuccoli, Fabrizio, Del Bianco, Samuele, Gai, Marco, Cortesi, Ugo, Di Natale, Gianluca, Toccafondi, Alberto, Puggelli, Federico, Antonini, Andrea, Volpi, L., Dei, D., Grandi, P., Mariottini, F., Cucini, A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Atmospheric measurements
Atmospheric modeling
Atmospheric models
Attenuation
Attenuation measurement
Elevation angle
Frequency measurement
Laboratory tests
Measurement
Microwave measurement
Microwaves
normalized differential spectral attenuation (NDSA)
Numerical prediction
Numerical weather forecasting
Prediction models
Prototypes
Radio
radio link
Radio links
Radio receivers
scintillation
Software radio
Troposphere
Water vapor
water vapor (WV)
Water vapour
Weather forecasting
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Summary:Measurement of water vapor (WV) in the lower troposphere on a continuous temporal basis would improve our knowledge of the atmospheric dynamics and the performance of numerical weather prediction models. In recent studies, a new measurement concept, the normalized differential spectral attenuation (NDSA) approach, was proposed. It is based on measurements of differential attenuation at 18.8 and 19.2 GHz performed along a tropospheric radio link. While NDSA measurement at a fixed elevation angle provides information on integrated WV (IWV), measurements at different elevation angles allow to retrieve the vertical WV content profile. A prototype NDSA demonstrator, which consists of two units, a synthesized transmitter and a software-defined radio receiver, has been designed and implemented. The system was accurately characterized through several laboratory tests, and then a first experimental campaign was conducted at fixed elevation angle along a ground-to-ground radio link. Obtained results confirm the sensitivity of the NDSA measurements to the IWV along such link with a good agreement with the existing ground-based and satellite data products.
ISSN:0196-2892
1558-0644
DOI:10.1109/TGRS.2021.3067929