Journal of Emerging Trends in Engineering and Applied Sciences: Research Areas

Article Title: Tropical Rainfall Structure Characterization over Two Stations in Southwestern Nigeria for Radiowave Propagation Purposes
by J. S. Ojo and E. O. Olurotimi

Abstract:
Tropical rain structure characteristics are investigated over two stations in southwestern, Nigeria using 2-year rainfall data of 1-minute integration time obtained from the Nigerian Environmental Climatic Observatory Program (NECOP), Pro-weather station. This result was analyzed in order to present information about the detailed microstructure of rain rate in this region and their impact on satellite-Earth propagation link services. The statistical analysis of the data has been based on the cumulative distribution function (CDF), exceedence of rainfall intensity threshold values, integration time effect, dependence of rainfall on the event duration, worst month concepts as well as diurnal variability. Dependence of average rain rate on the duration of rain event shows that in Akure, the average rainfall intensity during the rain events is about 8.59 mm/h, the maximum rainfall intensity during rain events was 179.6 mm/h, while in Lagos the minimum rainfall intensity during rain events was 1.51 mm/h and the maximum rainfall intensity was 206.8 mm/h. In overall, the results obtained will assist in the successful planning of communication links to operate in the Ku and higher frequency bands in a tropical location like Nigeria.

Keywords: rainfall structure, tropical locations, threshold levels, rainfall evolutions, diurnal variability

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