Dispersive Microwave Fading and Lower Atmospheric Structure: An Observational Study
01 January 1989
Simultaneous measurements of microwave fading and lower atmospheric conditions were carried out in Georgia beginning in 1986 as a part of the continuing efforts to studying the line-of-sight digital performance. It was found that dispersive multipath fading occurs during nights with strong radiation inversion accompanied by a subsiding air mass. Subsidence inversion causes dispersion and the origin of the air mass affects the mean received power level under multipath propagation conditions.
When the height of the nocturnal boundary layer coincides with the height of ground based radiation inversion layer and is at 100 to 150 meters, fading is heavy, active, and dispersive for a 35- mile path with both transmitting and receiving antennae at 60 m above grade.