Development of Hydrometeor Attenuation Prediction Models for Port Harcourt (South/South) Nigeria

Many radio mast installations do not undergo proper processes due to a lack of adequate attenuation models for water vapor and oxygen in the location of interest. Meanwhile, the effect of water vapor and oxygen on space path link is noticeable even during clear air scenarios. To obtain concise values for water vapor and oxygen (hydrometeor), model development using meteorological data (temperature, pressure, relative humidity) for the locality is essential. In this paper, attenuation models due to water vapor and oxygen are developed for Port Harcourt (4.847° N, 6.975° E), Nigeria, using meteorological data collected from the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) over a duration of five (5) years. The new models (gaussian, linear, and exponential models) were developed to derive new analytical parameters in a wide frequency range, including K band, Ka band, X band, C band, and S band for water vapor attenuation. Additionally, oxygen attenuation was obtained for K band, X band, C band, and Ku frequency bands. The proposed models showed significant improvement over the ITU-R model, with reduced Root Mean Square (RMSE) for most of the considered frequency bands.