Effective Permittivity of Dry Snow in the 18 To 90 GHz Range - Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to study the effective permittivity behavior of dry snow in the 18 to 90 GHz range. The empirical values of the effective permittivity of dry snow are derived from experimental data on the extinction coefficient of the dry snow. The range of the validity of strong fluctuation theory model for dry snow effective permittivity is examined by comparing the model predictions with experimental data-based values. The effective permittivity values as a function of mean grain size, frequency and temperature are numerically evaluated. Several empirical and theoretical mixing models for dry snow are also considered in this study.