Simulation of raindrop shapes and its interaction with electromagnetic wave

Abstract

Radio waves propagating through a rain zone will undergo scattering, depolarization, absorption and delay in time. All these effects on wave propagation are related to the frequency at which the signal is transmitted and as well as the rain parameters, a good knowledge of these hydrometeor parameters is therefore of great importance in the modeling of their effects on radio communication. These parameters can be measured with micro rain radar (MRR). The MRR instrument is a versatile equipment for collecting rain parameter. In this study these parameters were obtained using a MATLAB software to develop a rain radar simulator, this was found necessary because of the inadequacy of micro rain radar instrument in many locations of interest, thus the simulator will facilitate ubiquitous use and application in weather and radio wave propagation and augment the available MRR equipment. The simulation result shows the oblate spherical raindrop shape. The axis ratio was obtained and compared with those obtained by other researcher. This raindrop parameter was further used to simulate the interaction of raindrop with electromagnetic wave and the raindrop reflectivity was obtained. The simulation was validated by comparing the reflectivity obtained with that measured by the MRR equipment.