Attenuation of the electromagnetic waves due to dry snow

Based on the point matching technique, the attenuation of electromagnetic waves due to dry snow is computed. The analysis is restricted to the forward-scattering direction from oblate spheroidal dry snow. Numerical results are obtained for two orthogonal polarizations of the incident wave. The calculations are made for various microwave frequencies, between 6 and 75 GHz, and also for different precipitation rates, between 0.5 and 3 mm/hr. The effect of the frequency and the precipitation rate on the attenuation is examined. It is found that at a fixed value of the precipitation rate the attenuation of both polarizations increases with increasing frequency. This increase is sharper for frequencies greater than 70 GHz. It is also observed that at a fixed frequency, the attenuation of both polarizations increases with increasing precipitation rate. The differential attenuation is found to follow the same trend as the attenuations for frequencies greater than 70 GHz and is negligible for frequencies below 70 GHz