Prediction of Microwave Attenuation Due to Dust Storms over Iraq

Abstract

In this work the effect of severe dust storms with visibility less than 1 km on some aspect of microwave propagation especially attenuation and depolarization at 12 GHz are presented. Meteorological data were collected by the Iraqi meteorological organization for 30 years in Baghdad (1958-1988) and 10 years (1978-1988) for other four stations, Nasiriyah, Basrah, Rutbah and Mousl are used in this predication. The results shows that the microwave links located at the south close to the desert affected as much as 7 times more than other regions. The analysis were conducted for the days, nights, months, seasons and years shows that these effects are significant during days more than nights and at the summer more than the other seasons, while a cycle of 4.5 year was observed. These effects could represent great danger to the microwave links in this region.