volume | PIER Journals

Abstract

Electromagnetic wave propagation in arid and semi-arid regions is influenced by sand and dust storms. Meagre information has hitherto been reported as to the effect of storms on telecommunication systems operating in such regions. This paper presents a survey of current understanding of the electromagnetic wave propagation during sand and dust storms. In the first part of the review, detailed parametric assessment of some electrical and mechanical properties affecting wave propagation in sand and dust storms is given. The second part of the review (Part-II) describes the principle of approach and technology adopted for the investigation highlighting both strengths and drawbacks. The results demonstrate that most authors have calculated signal attenuation effect, revealing that it is not very significant unless very high suspended dust densities are assumed (i.e. during severe sand and dust storms). A few papers indicate the possibility of more significant cross polarisation. Part-I explicitly gives an account of the sand and dust storms' phenomenon, reviews the storms' parameters affecting electromagnetic wave propagations and discusses the microwave and millimeter wave bands.

1. Abdulla, S. A. A., H. M. Al-Rizzo, and M. M. Cyril, "Particle-size distribution of Iraqi sand and dust storms and their influence on microwave communication systems," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 36, No. 1, 114-126, 1988.
doi:10.1109/8.1082

2. Abuhdima, E. M. and I. M. Aleh, "Effect of sand and dust storms on microwave propagation signals in Southern Libya," 2010 15th IEEE Mediterranean Electrotechnical Conference, 695-698, 2010.

3. Adhikari, P., "Understanding millimeter wave wireless communication,", VP of Business Development for Network Solutions, Loea Corporation, San Diego, 2008.

4. Ahmed, A. S., "Role of particle-size distributions on millimeter-wave propagation in sand/duststorms," Inst. Electr. Eng. Proceedings, Vol. 134, 55-59, 1987.

5. Ahmed, A. S., A. Ali, and M. A. Alhaider, "Airborne dust size analysis for tropospheric propagation of millimetric waves into dust storms," IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Vol. 25, No. 5, 593-599, 1987.
doi:10.1109/TGRS.1987.289838

6. Ahmed, I. Y., "Microwave propagation through sand and dust storms,", PhD Thesis, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK, 1976.

7. Ansari, A. J. and B. G. Evans, "Microwave propagation in sand and dust storms," Proc. Inst. Electr. Eng., Vol. 129, 315-322, 1982.

8. Bagnold, R. A., The Physics of Blown Sand and Desert Dunes, First Publ. 1941, Chapman & Hall, London, U.K., 1984.

9. Bashir, S. and N. McEwan, "A novel measurement method of a single dust particle permittivity at a microwave frequency band as I/P to accurate scattering computations. Part I," Radioelectronics and Communications Systems, Vol. 55, No. 4, 178-185, 2012.
doi:10.3103/S0735272712040061

10. Bashir, S. O. and N. J. McEwan, "Microwave propagation in dust storms: A review," IEE Proceedings, Vol. 133, No. 3, 241-247, 1986.

11. Boyarskii, D. A., V. V. Tikhonov, and N. Y. Komarova, "Model of dielectric constant of bound water in soil for applications of microwave remote sensing," Progress In Electromagnetics Research, Vol. 35, 251-269, 2002.
doi:10.2528/PIER01042403

12. Chen, H. Y. and C. Ku, "Microwave and millimeter wave attenuation in sand and dust storms," International Conference on Microwave, Radar and Wireless Communication, 527-532, Warsaw, Poland, IEEE, 2012.

13. Chepil, W. S. and N. P. Woodruff, "Sedimentary characterisation of duststorms: II-Visibility and dust concentration," American Journal Sci., Vol. 255, 1957.
doi:10.2475/ajs.255.3.206

14. Chu, T. S., "Effect of sand storms on microwave propagation," Bell Syst. Tech. J., Vol. 58, 549-555, 1979.
doi:10.1002/j.1538-7305.1979.tb02234.x

15. Dobson, M., F. T. Ulaby, M. T. Hallikainen, and M. A. El-Rayes, "Microwave dielectric behavior of wet soil-part II: Dielectric mixing models," IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Vol. 23, No. 1, 35-46, 1985.
doi:10.1109/TGRS.1985.289498

16. Dong, Q., J. D. Xu, Y. L. Li, H. Zhang, and M. J. Wang, "Calculation of microwave attenuation effect due to charged sand particles," effect due to charged sand particles, Vol. 32, 55-63, 2011.

17. Dong, Q., J. Xu, Y. Li, and M. Wang, "Microwave propagation in charged sand particles," 2010 9th International Symposium on Antennas Propagation and EM Theory (ISAPE), 379-382, 2010.

18. Elabdin, Z. E. O., M. R. Islam, O. O. Khalifa, and H. E. Abd-El-Raouf, "Mathematical model for the prediction of microwave signal attenuation due to duststorm," Progress In Electromagnetics Research M, Vol. 6, 139-153, 2009.

19. Elsheikh, E. A. A., M. R. Islam, A. Z. Alam, A. F. Ismail, K. Al-Khateeb, and Z. Elabdin, "The effect of particle size distributions on dust storm attenuation prediction for microwave propagation," Proc. Int. Conf. Computer and Communication Engineering, 1156-1161, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2010.

20. Ghobrial, S. I., "Effect of hygroscopic water on dielectric constant of dust at X-band," Electron. Lett., Vol. 16, 393-394, 1980.
doi:10.1049/el:19800277

21. Ghobrial, S. I., "The effect of sand storms on microwave propagation," Proc. Nat. Telecommunication Conf., Vol. 2, 43.5-43.5.4, Houston, Texas, 1980.

22. Ghobrial, S. I. and J. A. Jervase, "Microwave propagation in dust storms at 10.5GHz --- A case study in Khartoum, Sudan," IEICE Trans. Commun., Vol. E80-B, No. 11, 1722-1727, 1997.

23. Ghobrial, S. I. and S. M. Sharief, "Microwave attenuation and cross polarization in dust storms," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 35, No. 4, 418-425, 1987.
doi:10.1109/TAP.1987.1144120

24. Gillett, D. A., Environmental Factors Affecting Dust Emission by Wind Erosion, C. Morales, Ed., Wiley, New York, 1979.

25. Glickman, T. S., Glossary of Meteorology, 2nd Edition, American Meteorological Society, Washington , 2000.

26. Goldhirsh, J., "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," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 30, No. 6, 1121-1127, 1982.
doi:10.1109/TAP.1982.1142932

27. Goldhirsh, J., "Attenuation and backscatter from a derived two-dimensional duststorm model," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 49, No. 12, 1703-1711, 2001.
doi:10.1109/8.982449

28. Gupta, V. K. and R. A. Jangid, "The effect of bulk density on emission behavior of soil at microwave frequencies," International Journal of Microwave Science and Technology, Vol. 2011, 160129-6, 2001, doi:10.1155/2011/160129.

29. Hughes, D. and R. Zoughi, "A novel method for determination of dielectric properties of materials using a combined embedded modulated scattering and near-field microwave techniques --- Part I: Forward model," IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas., Vol. 54, No. 6, 2005.

30. Jillavenkatesa, A., S. J. Dapkunas, and L. H. Lum, "Particle size characterization,", National Institute of Standards and Technology, US, 2001.

31. Kim, K., "Measurement of grain moisture content using microwave attenuation at 10.5GHz and moisture density," IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, Vol. 51, No. 1, 72-77, 2002.
doi:10.1109/19.989904

32. Lasne, Y., "Effect of salinity on the dielectric properties of geological materials: Implication for soil moisture detection by means of radar remote sensing," IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Vol. 46, No. 6, 1674-1688, 2008.
doi:10.1109/TGRS.2008.916220

33. McEwan, N. and S. Bashir, "Microwave propagation in sand and dust storms: The theoretical basis for particle alignment," International Conference on Antennas and Propagation, ICAP 82, Vol. 219, 227-231, IEE Conference Publication, 1983.

34. Musa, A. and S. O. Bashir, "Electromagnetic waves propagation in dust storms at millimeter wave Band," Journal of Emerging Trends in Engineering and Applied Sciences (JETEAS), Vol. 4, No. 2, 162-167, SCHOLAR Link Research Institute Journal, ISSN: 2141-7016, 2013.

35. Musa, A. and S. O. Bashir, "Prediction of cross polarization discrimination at millimeter wave band due to dust storms," ARPN Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Vol. 8, No. 7, 465-472, 2013.

36. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) "Forecasting dust storms,", Retrieved, 2013.

37. Peplinski, N. R., F. T. Ulaby, and M. C. Dobson, "Dielectric properties of soils in the 0.3–1.3-GHz range," IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Vol. 33, No. 3, 803-807, 1995.
doi:10.1109/36.387598

38. Sharif, S., "Performance of earth-satellite links during duststorms at the X-band," Sudanese Engineering Journal, Vol. 40, No. 33, 1993.

39. Sharif, S. M., "Dust storms properties related to microwave signal propagation," University of Khartoum Engineering Journal (UofKEJ), Vol. 1, No. 1, 1-9, 2011.

40. Sharief, S. M. and S. I. Ghobrial, "X-band measurements of the dielectric constant of dust," Proc. URSI Commission F Symposium, Louvain-la-Neuve, 143-147, ESA Publication SP-194, Belgium, 1983.

41. Shao, Y., Physics and Modeling of Wind Erosion, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, 2000.

42. Stratton, J., Electromagnetic Theory, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1941.

43. Stutzman, W. L., "The special section on propagation effects on satellite communication links," IEEE Proceedings, Vol. 81, No. 6, 850-855, 1993.

44. Tan, S., "A statistical model for long-term forecasting of strong sand dust storms,", MSc Thesis, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2011.

45. Yan, Y., "Microwave propagation in saline dust storms," Int. J. Inf. Millim. Waves, Vol. 25, 1237-1243, 2004.
doi:10.1023/B:IJIM.0000042756.92810.5e

46. Zhou, Y., Q. Hea, and X. Zheng, "Attenuation of electromagnetic wave propagation in sandstorms incorporating charged sand particles," The European Physical Journal E, Vol. 17, 181-187, 2005.
doi:10.1140/epje/i2004-10138-5

Dr. Abdulwaheed Musa

Prof. Saad Osman Bashir

Dr. Aisha Hassan Abdalla