Incidences of anomalous propagation of microwave radio signals over Akure, Nigeria

The allocation and deployment of frequencies for telecommunication services depend on local propagation characteristics as made available by the individual nations. This situation becomes more critical in the light of current trend in information and communication technology; hence each nation of the world is striving to be a part of the evolving global village. This paper presents the preliminary results of the measurements of some radio meteorological parameters of the troposphere of Akure (7.15°N, 5.12°E), Nigeria using Vantage pro2, Integrated Sensor Suite placed at different altitudes from the earth´s surface at intervals of 50 m to 200 m on a TV tower. From the data collected, radio refractivity and its vertical gradient were calculated to examine the propagation effects predominant in Akure. The study revealed that refractivity values were high during the period of rain and decrease as altitude increases. The mean refractivity gradient is -46.25 N-units/km while the prevalent propagation effect is super-refraction.