Detection of sleet attenuation in data series measured on microwave links

Abstract

Radio wave propagation on terrestrial high frequency microwave point-to-point links is highly influenced by atmosphere effects,especially by the attenuation of precipitation. Usable models exist for considering rain attenuation, but the statistics of rare sleet events are less known. Our measurements on microwave links makes it possible to model the sleet attenuation. Sleet events can be automatically detected with an algorithm which exploits the important differences between the secondorder statistics of rain and sleet attenuation time functions. This enables to easily separate and collect sleet events, which is essential for model constitution in the near future.