Integrated water vapor estimation through microwave propagation measurements: second experiment on a ground-to-ground radio link

The Normalized Differential Spectral Attenuation technique (NDSA) has been proposed as a method for measuring Integrated Water Vapor (IWV) by means of attenuation measurements in the Ku-/K-band along tropospheric microwave links. After a first measurement campaign aimed at demonstrating the NDSA method, a second field experiment has been carried out from August 1 to November 30, 2022. The transmitter was placed on the top of Monte Gomito (44.1277 degrees lat, 10.6434 degrees lon, 1892 meters a.s.l.) and the receiver on the roof of the Department of Information Engineering of the University of Florence (43.7985 degrees lat, 11.2528 degrees lon, 50 meters a.s.l.). The resulting radio link length was 61.15 km. Four ground weather stations of the regional weather service were selected among those available. The purpose is comparing the IWV estimates provided by NDSA measurements with the ground point data of air temperature, air humidity, barometric pressure, and rainfall.