Weather radar data for site diversity predictions and evaluation of the impact of rain field advection

This paper presents the analysis on two weather radar data sets, collected at Spino d'Adda (Italy) and Bordeaux (France), for the simulation and the performance evaluation of a site diversity system. Results from the two locations are compared and the impact of different factors such as the baseline and link orientation is assessed and related to the local climatologic characteristics. The results obtained are then compared with the model currently recommended by the ITU-R for the estimation of the site diversity performance. A linkage is then established between the preferable baseline orientation and the predominant direction of the rain field advection. The rain field displacement is finally shown to be well approximated by the wind speed and direction relative to the 700 hPa isobar extracted from the European Center for Medium-range Weather Forecast ERA-40 meteorological database. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.