Cloud Characteristics and Cloud Attenuation in Millimeter Wave and Microwave Frequency Bands for Satellite and Remote Sensing Applications over a Northern Indian Tropical Station

Microwave and millimeter wave frequency bands are in demand for requirement of more channels in radio communication systems. It has also been recognized that microwave and millimeterwave frequency radiometers on board satellites as promising tools for remote sensing. The frequency more than 10 GHz is affected by rain and cloud. Though the effects of rain on radiowave is more than cloud but the occurence of cloud is more than rain. Cloud has been found to occur for weeks together over this part of the world. It is therefore essential to study cloud morphology over different geographical region. In this paper, an attempt has been made to the cloud occurrences over an Indian tropical station, Delhi (28.35°N, 77.12°E) observed during different months and daytime and nighttime. It is seen that low clouds occurrence over Delhi is very significant and particularly during July, August and September. The specific attenuation of radiowave due to clouds at various frequencies 10 GHz, 20 GHz, 50 GHz and 100 GHz has been deduced. The specific attenuation of radio wave due to cloud at 10 GHz varies from 0.0608 dB/km to 0.1190 dB/km while at 100 GHz the specific attenuation varies from 6.8460 dB/km to 11.9810 dB/km     

Microwave and Millimeter Wave Characteristics and Attenuation of Clouds over some Malaysian Equatorial Stations

Based on radar range height indicator (RHI) measurements, cloud characteristics in relation to radiowave propagation over three locations in different geographical region in western Malaysia have been presented. It is seen that low cloud occurrence over these locations are quite significant. Cloud attenuation and noise temperature can result in serious degradation of telecommunication link performances. This paper presents cloud coverage in different months, 0°C isotherm height and cloud attenuation results at 12 GHz, 20 GHz, 36 GHz, 50 GHz, 70 GHz and 100 GHz over measurement site. The low level cloud over the measurement sites has been found to occur for many days and nights and particularly in the months of April to May and October to December. Such results are useful for satellite communication and remote sensing application in Malaysia.     

Cloud Morphology Over Three Indian Tropical Stations for Earth Space Communication

Microwave and millimeter wave frequency bands are in demand for requirement of larger bandwidth for various applications of radio systems. In future in India too, microwave and millimeter wave frequencies will be in use very extensively for radio communication purposes and remote sensing applications. But, the attenuation due to cloud as well as thermal noise associated with could in millimeter wave and microwave frequency bands are of great concern to system engineers and radio researchers. Both cloud attenuation and cloud noise temperature lead to degradation in the performance of microwave communication and radar propagation. The effects of rain on radio wave are more than cloud but the occurrence of cloud is more than rain. In some parts of India cloud occurs for weeks together. The cloud morphology particularly in relation to radio wave propagation over different geographical region of India is therefore very essential and important. In view of this, systematic studies on cloud occurrence morphology over different geographical locations in India have been undertaken. In recent past some results on cloud occurrences over different stations in India have been reported. In this paper, cloud characteristics and cloud attenuation over three more stations are presented. Based on low level cloud coverage observations, cloud occurrences frequency over Mumbai (19.07°N, 72.50°E), Nagpur (21.06°N, 79.03°E) and Ahmadabad (23.04°N, 72.38°E) situated in Indian tropical west coast, central plain and semi arid region of western India in different months during daytime and nighttime has been deduced. The low-level cloud over Mumbai, Nagpur and Ahamedabad has been found to occur for many days and nights and particularly in the months of June, July, August and September. The attenuation of radio wave due to clouds at various frequencies ～10, 18, 32, 44 and 70 GHz over the aforesaid three stations also been deduced.     

Frequency characteristics of superconductive coaxial lines

By precise manufacturing methods, 1.6-mm 50-Ω superconductive coaxial lines having few impedance irregularities (0.2 to 0.3 Ω) have been produced. Their attenuation constant at 4.2 K shows a smooth gradual increase upto 12.4 GHz in proportion to frequency. The loss at 1 GHz is 0.7 dB/km for the line using tetra fluoroethylene-hexa fluoropropylene (FEP) and 1.6 dB/km for the line using polyethylene (PE).     

A low phase shift attenuator

A PIN diode attenuator with an average of 0.25°/dB phaseshift between 2.5 GHz and 5.3 GHz has been modelled and constructed. In particular the attenuator has similar phase at 0 dB and 12 dB of attenuation to within 0.5° over most of the band. The input match is better than 10 dB over the attenuation range of 0 to 10 dB     

Broadband Eight-Way Differential SIW Power Divider with Bandpass-Filtering Response Using Novel Hybrid Multiple-via Probe and Multiple Radial Slots

A broadband eight-way differential substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) power divider with bandpass-filtering response by using novel hybrid multiple-via probe and multiple radial slots has been presented in this paper. The novel hybrid multiple-via probe are employed to achieve broadband impedance matching, while the multiple radial slots are used to improve the out-of-band rejection level. An eight-way differential SIW power divider with bandpass-filtering response is designed, fabricated, and measured. The measured results agree with the simulated ones closely in the desirable frequency range. The measured average insertion loss of the eight-way power divider is approximately 9.3 dB and input return loss is greater than 15 dB from 3.2 to 8.1 GHz. Moreover, the out-of-band rejection band with more than 25 dB attenuation from 9 GHz to more than 11 GHz is observed. A maximum amplitude imbalance of \(\pm 0.7\,\hbox { dB}\) is observed over the entire operating frequency range.     

A novel microstrip lowpass filter with sharp roll-off and ultra-wide stopband using SICMRC

This paper presents a novel microstrip lowpass filter with sharp roll-off and ultra-wide stopband using stepped-impedance resonator and bended transmission line structure. The filter includes stepped-impedance prototype filter and stepped-impedance compact microstrip resonator cells that are combined in one structure. The proposed filter has good specifications such as sharp roll-off, ultra-wide stopband and low insertion loss. The transition band is approximately 0.25 GHz from 1.75 to 2 GHz with corresponding attenuation levels of ?3 and ?40 dB. The attenuation level in the stopband is better than ?20 dB that is achieved from 1.94 to 23 GHz, and the insertion loss in the passband is less than 0.4 dB. The proposed filter is fabricated and measured, and the simulation and measurement results are found to be in good agreement with each other.     

Antennas for Short Distance Communications in Cryogenic Environment

Sets of bow-tie antennas, used in a single emitter-receiver near-field configuration and in array configuration, have been studied to be used as wireless means to transmit 8–12 GHz microwave signals from the cold stage of a cryogenic system to a room-temperature processing unit. Indeed, the absence of heat conduction allows increasing the performance of cryogenic systems and open the way to multichannel microwave systems that are necessary for imagers. Transmission loss has been found to be lower than 3 dB over a 1.5 GHz bandwidth while crosstalk in the array configuration is kept below ?20 dB when antennas are located at around 90 mm transversally from each other.     

Compact wide stopband lowpass filter using spiral loaded tapered compact microstrip resonator cell

A new spiral loaded tapered compact microstrip resonator cell (SPLT-CMRC) is presented. The addition of spiral stubs to the CMRC creates transmission zeroes in the stopband which extended the stopband of the ?lter. The proposed resonator is used to design a compact lowpass ?lter (LPF) with wide and high rejection in stopband. The fabricated ?lter has a 3 dB cutoff frequency at 8 GHz. The insertion loss in the passband is less than 0.2 dB from DC to 7.2 GHz. The proposed ?lter has wide stopband from 9.47 to 40 GHz with attenuation level of ?20 dB. The demonstrated filter is designed and fabricated. There is a good agreement between the measured and simulated S-parameters.     

The Design and Fabrication of Monomode Optical Fiber

The design of monomode fibers is discussed in the context of optimizing fiber loss and dispersion simultaneously, with reference to the materials choices and limitations to preform and fiber fabrication by the MCVD technique. Two classes of monomode structure-matched cladding and depressed cladding-are considered. Ultralow attenuation has been achieved reproducibly in both classes of fiber. The control of fiber geometry and dispersion is also discussed. Matched cladding fiber suitable for systems operating at both 1.3 and 1.55 µm has been studied and mean losses of 0.45 dB/km at 1.3 µm and 0.28 dB/km at 1.55 µm have been achieved for a total of 130 km. The behavior of depressed cladding fiber is compared with predictions from the theory of propagation in W fibers. Depressed cladding fiber with stable guidance has been demonstrated with attenuation of 0.37 dB/km at 1.3 µm and 0.21 dB/km at 1.55 µm.     

Measurements at millimeter and micrometer wavelengths

Insertion loss measurements of waveguide components have been made with an accuracy 0.2 dB at the 10-dB level and 2.8 dB at the 30-dB level. Attenuation measurements of 60-mm TE10circular waveguide have been made over the frequency range 33 to 110 GHz with total uncertainty of 0.4 dB. Intercomparison between calorimeters developed by national laboratories at 100 GHz resulted in differences less than 0.5 percent. In measuring optical fibers calorimetry was used to measure loss and power with an accuracy of 1 to 2 percent. Loss measurements by comparison with a standard have resulted in accuracies of 0.5 dB in losses of 40 dB/km in the 1.0- to 1.6-µm range. Shuttle pulse measurement of pulse spreading indicates that pulsewidths of 0.4 ns are increased to 4.0 ns by passing through 2 km of fiber at a wavelength of 0.9 µm. Interferometer techniques were developed for determination of the complex permittivity of liquids and solids over a wide temperature range in the frequency range from 10.0 GHz to 18 THz. Complex permittivities have been measured at 94 GHz by transmission through a dielectric slab. Errors reported in relative permittivity and loss tangent are 0.2 and 2.5 percent, respectively.     

Atmospheric emission measurements of attenuation by microwaveradiometer at 19.4 GHz

Attenuation measurements on an Earth space path are presented using a passive microwave radiometer operating at 19.4 GHz in the emission mode. Attenuation measured under clear weather showed variation between 0.2 to 1.1 dB, whereas for cloud conditions attenuation as high as 1.0 dB have been recorded. Attenuation measurements for rain events have been correlated with rainfall rate using a fast-response 10 seconds opto-electronic rain gauge. The values of attenuation versus rainfall rate varied between A (dB)=0.01+0.18 R(mm/h) at the minimum and A (dB)=0.01+0.25 R(mm/h) at the maximum, showing considerable variability in the values of attenuation from year to year. The attenuation statistics for different seasons have also been computed and they show considerable changes from season to season-the largest attenuation in excess of 10 dB recorded in July-August-September, whereas minimum attenuation in excess of 2 dB recorded in December-March for nearly two years of data. Comparison of measurements made over New Delhi with those reported elsewhere show that for 0.02% of time attenuation values lie between those of Slough, England, and Crawford Hill, NJ. The concept of effective path length has been discussed based on the relationship between effective path length and the rain rate     

Backscatter and attenuation by falling snow and rain at 96, 140,and 225 GHz

The results of measurements are presented for backscatter cross section per unit volume and attenuation for falling snow and rain at 96, 140, and 225 GHz. The attenuation due to rain is almost independent of the measurement frequency, but for snow the attenuation is considerably greater at 225 GHz than at 96 GHz. The rain attenuation generally varies with the rain accumulation rate in accordance with an aR^b relationship for a Laws and Parsons drop-size distribution where R is the rain rate and a and b are constants. The attenuation at all three frequencies is about 3 dB/km for a rain rate of 4 mm/h. The attenuation due to snow varies with airborne snow-mass concentration, with the average rates of increase being 0.9, 2.5, and 8.7 (dB/km)(g/m³) at 96, 140, and 225 GHz, respectively. Generally the attenuation for snow is lower than that for rain. The backscatter cross section per unit volume for rain at 96 GHz is about -35 dB m²/m³ for a rain rate of 4 mm/h. The backscatter from snow at 96 GHz is much lower than that from rain under equivalent accumulation rates or airborne mass concentrations. Snow backscatter at 140 GHz is comparable but higher than that at 96 GHz     

A parameter review and assessment of attenuation and backscatter properties associated with dust storms over desert regions in the frequency range of 1 to 10 GHz

Meager information has hitherto been reported as to the influence of dust storms on radars operating in desert regions. This work represents an attempt to bring together the results of a body of diverse investigations and present a unified quantitative treatment of the attenuation and backscatter characteristics of radars operating in the range 1 to 10 GHz with particular emphasis atL- andS-band. The results demonstrate that for extreme mass loading values (40-60 gm/ m^-3) the two-way attenuation may be as high as 44 dB over a one-way range of 20 km. Such a mass loading uniformly spread over this range is, however, considered very unlikely. Assuming typicalS- andL-band radar parameters and the above extreme dust concentrations filling the pulse volumes at a range of 100 km, equivalent point target cross sections of approximately 2 and 1 m²result at the respective frequencies.     

Attenuation of 8.6 and 3.2 mm radio waves by clouds

Measured attenuations associated with a variety of cloud conditions at wavelengths near 8.6 and 3.2 mm are reported. Two specific events, during which heavy rain clouds covered the sky, are examined and statistical data collected over a six-month period on a variety of cloud types are presented. The number of observations of some cloud types was not large and it was not possible to account for the gaseous attenuation with sufficient accuracy to get reliable values for the attenuation by the cloud droplets for a number of cloud types. The clouds causing the largest attenuations were the rain-bearing cumulonimbus ones. Of the nonrain clouds the two types for which the sample sizes are adequate and attenuations are sufficient for meaningful conclusions are stratocumulus and cumulus, their 35 GHz/95 GHz mean attenuation values being 0.18/0.61 dB and 0.12/0.34 dB, respectively.     

Compact microstrip lowpass filter with wide stopband and sharp roll-off using tapered resonator

In this article, a novel microstrip lowpass filter (LPF) with specifications such as sharp cut-off, wide stopband, low insertion loss and high return loss using tapered resonator is presented. The LPF has cut-off frequency of 1.11 GHz, where unwanted harmonics are suppressed by novel tapered cells. The bandwidth is enhanced, and the size is reduced as compared to the conventional tapered filter. The transition band is approximately 0.29 GHz from 1.11 to 1.4 GHz with corresponding attenuation levels of –3 and –20 dB, respectively. The stopband with greater than –20 dB rejection is from 1.4 to 8.9 GHz, insertion loss in the passband is less than 0.1 dB, return loss is less than –18 dB and the overall size of the filter is 0.12 × 0.073 λ_g. The proposed filter is fabricated and measured. The simulation and measurement results are in good agreement. This LPF is designed for microwave communication applications, especially wireless video transmitters.     

一种新颖的DC～50GHz低插入相移MMIC可变衰减器

介绍了一种新颖的 DC～ 5 0 GHz低相移、多功能的 Ga As MMIC可变衰减器的设计与制作 ,获得了优异的电性能。微波探针在片测试结果为 :在 DC～ 5 0 GHz频带内 ,最小衰减≤ 3 .8d B,最大衰减≥ 3 5± 5 d B,最小衰减时输入 /输出驻波≤ 1 .5 ,最大衰减时输入 /输出驻波≤ 2 .2 ,衰减相移比≤ 1 .2°/d B。芯片尺寸 2 .3 3 mm× 0 .68mm× 0 .1 mm。芯片成品率高达 80 %以上 ,工作环境温度达 1 2 5°C,可靠性高 ,稳定性好     

Propagation observations at 3.2 millimeters

A millimeter-wave system for the transmission and reception of television signals has been constructed. The propagation path is 450 meters above sea level at the transmitter and traverses an 18.95-km path to the receiver, which is at an elevation of 39 meters atop a two-story building in El Segundo, Calif. The elevation angle is 1.17 degrees when corrected for curvature and refraction. Received picture quality and tropospheric scintillation and attenuation for various weather conditions are discussed. Tropospheric attenuation ranged from about 13 dB on a typical day to approximately 36 dB when moderate rainfall (∼4 mm/hr) occurred over much of the 18.95-km path. Tropospheric turbulence effects were almost nonexistent on days of heavy fog but reached peak-to-peak magnitudes of 20 dB or more in received signal fluctuations on dry, windy days. High quality television and voice reception were obtained over this link even during light to moderate rainfall periods (∼3 mm/hr). A transmitter output of approximately 100 mW, 0.61-m parabolas at each end of the link, and a receiver noise figure of 25 dB were the main system characteristics. Tropospheric attenuation measurements are in close agreement with values calculated from modified versions of the Van Vleck expressions for attenuation due to oxygen and water vapor. The average of measured tropospheric attenuation rates was approximately 0.7 dB/km for July 1965.     

Infrared Optical Fibers

A state of the art review of nonsilica based infrared fibers is presented. Two types of fiber materials have been investigated--crystals and glasses. Crystal fiber work appears to be focused on development of short haul CO/sub 2/ laser power delivering lines at 10.6 µm. The maximum delivering power of the CW CO/sub 2/ laser has reached up to about 100 W by the polycrystalline KRS-5 fiber. A number of glass fibers are being developed in fluorides, sulfides and heavy metal oxides. The best optical attenuation of each glass fiber has been respectively reduced to 21 dB/km at 2.55 µm for ZrF/sub 4/-based glass fiber with a core-clad structure, 78 dB/km at 2.4 µm for As-S unclad glass fiber, and 13 dB/km at 2.05 µm (70 dB/km at 2.40 µm) for GeO/sub 2/-Sb/sub 2/O/sub 3/ glass fiber with a core-clad structure. Recent progress of these infrared fibers offers great potential for new wavelength fiber finks operating in the 2-10 µm region which have not been realized by silica-based fiber.     

Dielectric waveguides for millimetre-wavelength transmission

The letter describes the salient features of a parametric study of dielectric waveguides intended for millimetre-wavelength microwave transmission. The waveguide is an analogue of the monomode optical waveguide, and, if core and cladding are made from foam materials, with loss tangents of order 10?5, the HE11 mode attenuation is about 40 dB/km, and the group delay change is 0.35 ns/km over 1 GHz bandwidth centred at 40 GHz.