Attenuation-Rain Rate Power-Law Relation

and Critical Diameters from Drop Size

Distribution Measurements in Durban
O. Adetan1 (Member, IEEE) and Thomas J. Afullo2 (Fellow Member, SAIEE)
School of Electrical, Electronic & Computer Engineering
University of KwaZulu-Natal
Durban, South Africa
211559250@stu.ukzn.ac.za, 2afullot@ukzn.ac.za
1

AbstractThe role of critical raindrop diameters on the
specific rainfall attenuation in Durban (29o52'S, 30o 58'E),
South Africa and the power law relations of the specific
rainfall attenuation, rain rate and the critical diameters are
investigated. The total specific rainfall attenuation is calculated
by integrating over all the raindrop sizes and the differential
change in the attenuation is determined over a given range of
raindrop sizes. The gamma distribution model with the shape
parameter of 2 is employed to estimate the parameters
required to investigate the drop sizes which produce a major
contribution to the total specific rainfall attenuation for the
selected rain rate values. Five rain rates: 1.41, 9.91, 14.21,
44.52 and 77.70 mm/hr are selected for the purpose of analysis
over the measured raindrop size distribution. For all the rain
rate values, the maximum contribution to the rainfall
attenuation is created by the raindrop diameters not exceeding
2.0 mm at frequencies of 10-100 GHz in Durban.The rain
attenuation increases with increased frequencies and the
highest rain rate produces the highest specific rainfall
attenuation. The total percentage fraction formed by drops in
the diameter range 0.5mm D 2.5 mm and 1.0 mm D 3.0
mm are found to be most critical for the specific rain
attenuation for the stratiform and convective rainfall types.
The derived coefficients of the power law relations differ
slightly from the ITU-R due to parameters used in the analysis.
KeywordsDrop size distribution; raindrop critical diameters;
specific rainfall attenuation
I. INTRODUCTION
The understanding of the attenuation statistics is
essential for the design of microwave and millimeter-wave
radio communication systems. It has been established that
rain attenuation is more severe in these frequency bands as
the rainfall intensity and attenuation vary in time and space
[1]. The specific rainfall attenuation is often predicted from
three parameters, which are the frequency, rain rate and
polarization, where the population of the raindrops is
represented by the single parameter, rainfall rate [2]. A good
knowledge of the drop size distribution (DSD) is very
important in the evaluation of the rainfall attenuation at
these radio frequency bands because it governs all the
microwave and rainfall integral relations. The modeling of
the DSD varies from one climate to another. Drop size
distribution modeling in temperate climate; characterized by
moderate (low) rainfall is well suitable with models such as
proposed by Marshall and Palmer [3], Laws and Parsons
[4] and the negative exponential model of gamma [5]. The
modeling of DSD in the tropical climate is best suitable with
the globally accepted Ajayi and Olsen [6] lognormal model.
A number of works done in Durban, South Africa on
rainfall attenuation and DSD [7-12] established the
suitability of the lognormal and gamma models for DSD
modeling in the region. Similarly, using various approaches
and models, a number of workers have investigated the
particular contributions of certain drop diameters to the
specific rainattenuation. These include: Lee et al. [13,14], in
Singapore, Fiser [15], in the Czech Republic, Lam et al.
[16] in Malaysia, and Marzuki et al. [17] in the Equatorial
Indonesia. They concluded that small and medium-size
drops contributed more to the rainfall attenuation as
frequency increases. They also noted that the prevailing
contribution to the specific attenuation is formed by
raindrops of diameter not exceeding 2 mm especially at
higher frequencies.
In this paper, we investigate the contributions of
particular raindrop channelson the specific rain attenuation
in Durban, an eastern coast in South Africa. The critical
diameters that produce a major contribution to the total
specific rainfall attenuationare investigated for the selected
rain rate values. Our approach is to compute the total rain
attenuation by integrating over all the drop sizes and
estimating the differential change in the attenuation at a
fixed diameter interval  . The power law
relations between the specific rainfall attenuation, rain rate
and these critical diameters in the form and
for spherical raindrop shape at water temperature T =
20oC is discussed. A comparison of the derived coefficients
a, b, c, and n with the ITU-R power law relation is also
discussed. The selected rain rate values from the
disdrometer measurements are 1.41, 9.91, 14.21, 44.52 and
77.70 mm/hr. The selected values represent the generally
known classes of rainfall drizzle, widespread, shower and
thunderstorm.
 at larger diameter bound, it contributes largely on the
curvature of the distribution at small diameters. The gamma
II. DATA MEASUREMENTS AND GAMMA DSD distribution is particularly useful in tropical regions where
MODEL the exponential distribution was found to be inadequate [6,
A. Data Measurements and Analysis 21].

    
The Joss-Waldvogel (J-W) RD-80 [18] disdrometer
installed in 2008 at the rooftop of the School of Electrical, with
Electronic and Computer Engineering, University of
KwaZulu-Natal was used to obtain over 80, 000 data  
samples for this work. The disdrometer converts the  
momentum of each falling drop impacting on the sensors
surface into an electric pulse of commensurate voltage. The
detectable diameter range is divided into 20 intervals. The The parameters in (3) are used in this paper for the purpose
sampling time, T of the disdrometer is 60s with a sampling of analysis of the drop size distribution model, N (D).
area, S of 50cm2(0.005m2). The data was gathered over a
period of about three years (October 2008 to December TABLE I.DROP SIZE CHANNELS AND MEASURED DROPS FROM
2010). The data was sorted and classified into different DISDROMETER MEASUREMENTS FOR THE SELECTED RAIN
RATES
types of rain based on rainfall rates R (mm/hr) as classified
in [6,19] namely: drizzle, widespread, shower and
thunderstorm. The minimum and maximum rainfall rates Rain rate (mm/hr)
Channel Mean
were 0.003mm/hr and 117.15mm/hr respectively. Rainfall i Diameter Di
1.41 9.91 14.21 44.52 77.7
events with overall sum of drops less than 10 were ignored 1 0.359 2 7 6 * *
from the disdrometer data to compensate for the dead-time 2 0.455 5 41 15 9 *
3 0.551 17 38 15 28 5
errors. The instrument is located at an altitude of 139.7 4 0.656 17 52 24 67 19
meters above sea level. The location site is free of noise and 5 0.771 9 24 39 28 19
protected from very strong winds. Equipment outage was 6 0.913 15 50 144 118 60
7 1.112 28 39 358 208 123
observed but very minimal.
8 1.331 19 57 226 105 118
From the disdrometer measurement, N (Di) is calculated 9 1.506 13 40 115 185 98
as [18, 19]: 10 1.656 5 27 79 144 86
11 1.912 3 35 44 150 168
12 2.259 1 23 1 231 124
   13 2.584 1 6 1 131 87
    2.869 * 4 * 50 60
15 3.198 * 6 * 21 51
16 3.544 * 2 * 14 34
where ni is the number of drops per channel, v(D) is the 17 3.916 * 1 * 2 28
Gun-Kinzer[20] terminal velocity of water droplets and dDi 18 4.35 * * * * 9
is the change in diameter of the (channel) in mm. Table I 19 4.859 * * * * *
20 5.373 * * * * *
shows the threshold of the drop size channels and the
Sum of drops 116 395 1067 1426 1089
measured drops from the disdrometer measurements for the
selected rain rates. The asterisks (*) represent lack of rain 10000 R = 1.41 mm/hr
drops. This lack of raindrops appears to be noticeable at R = 9.91 mm/hr
lower channels as the rain rate increases. This will be 1000 R = 14.21 mm/hr
discussed in more details under section IV. Figure 1 shows R = 44.52 mm/hr
N(D) [m-3 mm-1]

R = 77.70 mm/hr
measured N (D) for the selected rain rates using (1). It can 100
be observed that the diameter of raindrop increases as the
rain rate increases. 10
B. The gamma Distribution Model
1
The three-parameter gamma distribution model in
Durban as expressed by Tokay and Short [21] in the form of 0.1
(2) was studied by Adetan and Afullo [12] with No (m-3 mm- 0 1 2 3 4 5
1- Raindrop diameter [mm]
) indicating the scaling parameter, (unitless) is the shape
parameter, and is the slope parameter in mm-1. While the Fig.1. Measured N (D) of the selected rain rates from disdrometer
shape parameter does influence the slope of the distribution measurements.
III. RAINFALL RATE, SPECIFIC RAIN ATTENUATION
AND EXTINCTION CROSS SECTIONS
From a drop size distribution, the specific attenuation due
to rainfall (dB/km) and rainfall rate R (mm/hr) can be
calculated by applying the integral equations in (4,5) as:
     
 80
    
where N(D)dD in m-3 is the number per meter-cubed volume
of drop mean diameter D in mm, Qext is the extinction cross
sections which is dependent on the drop diameter D, the
wavelength , and the complex refractive index of water
drop m (a function of frequency of transmission f, and
temperature of water droplets).
The extinction cross sections Qext is evaluated by applying
the classical scattering theory of Mie [22] for a plane wave
impinging upon a spherical absorbing particle under the
assumption that each spherical raindrop illuminated by a
plane wave is uniformly distributed in a rain filled medium.
The distance between each drop is assumed large enough to
avoid any interaction between them. The cross section Qext
can be expressed by [23, 24] in (6) as:
   channels have more asterisks showing lack of raindrops.
where an and bn are the Mie scattering coefficients.
However, in this paper, the expression of Qext as employed
in[10] as a frequency-dependent, power law function with
coefficients, and is used. This expression is given in (7)
as:
 in Table IV. Using the classification of the rain rate as
  
Table II shows the computed values of and of the power
law relation in (7) at frequencies of 10 to 100 GHz using
[22].
The total rainfall attenuation therefore is evaluated by
integrating over all the raindrop sizes. Substituting (2) and
(7) in (5), the total specific rainfall attenuation is calculated
numerically over the raindrop diameters as (8):

   

Equation (8) solves to give (9):

  
TABLE II. VALUES OF AND AT f = 5-100 GHz AT T = 20oC
Frequencies
(GHz)
10 0.3857 4.5272
40 4.3106 3.5077
50 5.2855 3.2353
60 6.0493 3.0094
7.0623 2.6621
100 7.6874 2.4156
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The total specific rain attenuation created by drops in the
diameter intervals 0.1 D 7.0 mm at various frequencies
of transmission is shown in Table III. The total specific
attenuation increases with increasing frequencies and rain
rate. The highest and prevailing contribution to the specific
attenuation occurs at for the stratiform (R= 1.41
mm/hr) and convective (R = 77.70 mm/hr) rain types shown
in figure 2. This confirms the results obtained by [13-
17].The percentage contribution formed by the drop
diameter intervals to the total specific attenuation is shown
in Table V with 0.5 mm D 2.5 mm and 1.0 mm D 3.0
mm having the highest percentage for all the selected rain
rate values. Similarly, it can be observed from Table I that
most raindrops are formed in these channels. Larger
This also confirms our results. The contribution of larger
diameters as observed is insignificant (extremely small) to
the total attenuation. For instance, the highest contribution
in the diameter range 4.0 mm D 7.0 mm is 0.07% and
1.16% at f =100 GHz for rain rates of 14.21 and
77.70mm/hr respectively (Table V).The derived coefficient
of the attenuation and rain rate power law relations is shown
adopted in Afullo [11] for Durban, the coefficients derived
are similar to the ITU-R [2]. The slight variations in the
derived coefficients and the ITU-R are due to the deviation
in the parameters estimations used for the DSD model.
Similarly, the power-law relation of the form 
relating the extinction cross sections and the critical
diameter range 0.5 mm D 2.5 mm at f = 100 GHz is
with the derived coefficients of c= 1.4626
and n = 4.3494.
TABLE III. TOTAL SPECIFIC RAIN ATTENUATION CREATED BY V. CONCLUSION
DROPS IN THE DIAMETER RANGE 0.1 mm D 7.0 mm AT f = 10-
100 GHz The influence of critical raindrop diameters on rainfall
attenuation in Durban, South Africa has been studied in this
Rain rate
(mm/hr)
f (GHz) (dB/km) work using the gamma DSD model. The most critical range
10 0.015406 of diameters for all the rain rate values selected are drops in
20 0.08133 the diameter range 0.5 mm D 2.5 mm and 1.0 mm D
1.41 30 0.18647 3.0 mm. Larger diameters in the range 4.0 mm D 7.0 mm
40 0.31899
100 1.33609 contribute minimally (insignificant) to the total specific
10 0.19953 attenuation. The maximum attenuation occurs at diameter
20 0.92552 for the stratiform and convective rain types.
14.21 30 1.84412 These results show a good agreement with earlier work
40 2.78129
100 7.62494
done in other parts of the globe. A good understanding of
10 0.70762 the attenuation statistics is very essential for the microwave
20 3.07908 and millimeter wave system designers. The coefficients of
44.52 30 5.72388 the power-law relations between the specific rain
40 8.11154 attenuation and the rain rate derived in this work show a
100 18.0329
good agreement with the ITU-R recommendations. The
10 1.31181
20 5.53309
slight variation is due to the deviations in the parameters
77.70 30 9.94386 estimated from the DSD measurements. Further studies
40 13.6706 should verify the results in this work with attenuation data
100 27.4400 from satellite communication links and experimental
attenuation measurements performed in the same region.
1
TABLE IV. COEEFICIENTS OF SPECIFIC RAIN ATTENUATION
10GHz AND RAIN RATES RELATIONS FOR VERTICALLY POLARIZED
0.1 20GHz WAVES
30GHz
40GHz f (GHz) 10 20 30 40 100
0.01
[dB/km]

100GHz
a 0.0105 0.0566 0.1322 0.2299 1.005
0.001 b 1.108 1.053 0.992 0.984 0.759
ITU-R
0.0001
a 0.0089 0.069 0.167 0.310 1.06
0.00001 b 1.264 1.065 1.000 0.929 0.744
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
D [mm]
TABLEV. PERCENTAGE (%) OF THE ATTENUATION FORMED BY
DIAMETERS (mm) TO THE SPECIFIC ATTENUATIONWITHIN THE
(a) GIVEN DIAMETER INTERVALS
10 Rain 0.1 0.5 1.5 4.0
10GHz f 1.0 D
20GHz rate D D D D
(GHz) 3.0
30GHz (mm/hr) 2 2.5 3.5 7.0
40GHz 10 94.12 97.87 73.07 30.38 0.004
1 100GHz
20 95.42 97.65 68.63 26.31 0.002
R= 1.41
30 96.53 97.11 63.38 22.09 0.001
40 97.18 96.31 58.33 18.62 0.001
[dB/km]

0.1 100 99.00 90.51 40.06 9.28 0.0002

10 65.15 84.80 88.21 68.66 0.66
20 69.70 87.32 87.48 64.29 0.49
R =14.21
0.01 30 74.29 89.67 85.95 59.11 0.34
40 78.02 91.41 83.88 54.29 0.24
100 88.65 94.28 71.79 36.72 0.07
10 44.80 67.96 81.41 77.02 3.47
0.001 20 49.70 72.17 83.14 75.02 2.69
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 R= 44.52
D [mm] 30 55.38 76.45 84.32 71.98 2.00
40 60.28 79.97 84.68 68.67 1.51
(b) 100 76.11 88.92 80.23 53.07 0.52
10 35.30 58.10 74.66 76.99 6.55
Fig. 2. Rainfall attenuation and raindrop diameters for rainfall regimes at 20 40.12 62.86 77.53 76.27 5.21
various frequencies for (a) R= 1.41 and (b) R= 77.70 mm/hr. R= 77.70 30 45.76 67.88 80.03 74.72 3.99
40 50.99 72.17 81.64 72.49 3.09
100 68.40 84.15 81.48 59.77 1.16
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