Effects of variation of some weather parameters on surface refractivity

Abstract

The structure of radio refractive index in the troposphere is needed for the design of efficient radio communication systems. In this study, measurement of atmospheric pressure, temperature and relative humidity at ground level was made at the Tropospheric Data Acquisition Network (TRODAN) of Physics Department, Federal University of Technology Minna, Niger State. The data analysed were taken at intervals of 5 minutes daily. The results obtained show that the dry season months had lower values of refractivity ranging from 283 N-units in January to 312 N-units in March while the wet season months recorded higher refractivity values ranging from 356 N-units in May to 358 N-units in September. From these measurements, the sensitivity of surface radio refractivity to weather parameters was analyzed and the regression analysis carried out shows that mean values of pressure fairly correlated with surface refractivity while mean values of humidity had high correlation with surface refractivity.