Research Article Open Access

Empirical Determination of the Effect of Rainfall on Radio Communication (The Case of the Aviation Industry) in Nigeria

Abstract

Despite the presence and use of modern aviation equipment and instrumentation, there are still regular occurrences of air wish ups with very grave consequences. Often this has been attributed not only to equipment failures but to the inability of the operators to read or understood the role of nature in air navigation. These natural effects are the cloud cover, rainfall (both the volume and rate) as well as temperature. This paper uses empirical information of some of these meteorological conditions on radar signal reception to predict weather conditions. The work was carried out at Akanu Ibiam International Airport situated in Enugu, one of the old regional capitals of Nigeria, Enugu (6.42oN, 7.61oE). This was because of its strategic position and weather variations. It is neither of the heavy rainfall area nor of the hot dry zone of the country. It also has some hills around it which gave its name, Enugu, meaning on top of a hill. Using simple model, it was found that as the rainfall rate 𝐑𝐟 increased the value of the return power 𝐏𝐫 is only significantly noticeable at higher frequencies of 30GHz and above but for lower 𝐑𝐟 the backscatter echo signal 𝐏𝐫 is negligibly small irrespective of the values of the frequency. The results show that for communication in Enugu, radar frequency of between 10 and 30 GHz are recommended.

Eke J,Ohaneme C.O.,Onoh G.N.