ANALYSIS OF RADIO REFRACTIVITY VARIATION IN BIRNIN KEBBI DURING THE DRY SEASON

Abstract

Wireless communication in the troposphere always comes with complications. To have the best signal transmission there is a need to understand electromagnetic wave propagation which requires consideration of the radio refractivity. This study was conducted to analyse the variation of radio refractivity during the months of dry season in the city of Birnin Kebbi situated in the North West of Nigeria using seven years (2015-2021) of data on Meteorological factors (i.e., Temperature, Pressure, and Humidity) at 12m level above ground level. The data are high-resolution satellite data retrieved from European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Fifth Generation of the European Reanalysis (ERA5). The radio refractivity of dry season months (November, December, January, February and March) was evaluated for seven years.. The findings reveal that as the dry season lengthens, radio refractivity declines until it reaches its peak before changing and beginning to rise around February. This showed that, radio refractivity is affected by its closeness to the rainy season.  Standard deviations for the months of November, December, January, February, and March were determined to be 8.89, 4.08, 1.49, 6.67, and 6.58, respectively, indicating that conditions were more stable in January than they were in the other research months. These discoveries are crucial for this area's creation of electromagnetic wave communication routes.