A parameter review and assessment of attenuation and backscatter properties associated with dust storms over desert regions in the frequency range of 1 to 10 GHz

Meager information has hitherto been reported as to the influence of dust storms on radars operating in desert regions. This work represents an attempt to bring together the results of a body of diverse investigations and present a unified quantitative treatment of the attenuation and backscatter characteristics of radars operating in the range 1 to 10 GHz with particular emphasis at
L
- and
S
-band. The results demonstrate that for extreme mass loading values (40-60 gm/ m
^-3
) the two-way attenuation may be as high as 44 dB over a one-way range of 20 km. Such a mass loading uniformly spread over this range is, however, considered very unlikely. Assuming typical
S
- and
L
-band radar parameters and the above extreme dust concentrations filling the pulse volumes at a range of 100 km, equivalent point target cross sections of approximately 2 and 1 m
²
result at the respective frequencies.