Seasonal distribution modeling and mapping of the effective earth radius factor for microwave link design in South Africa

In this paper we present seasonal results of the effective earth radius factor distribution in South Africa using recently (2007-2009) acquired radiosonde data from the South African Weather Service (SAWS) for seven locations in South Africa. Two data modeling methods are used to formulate the solution for the distribution of the effective earth radius factor. The seasonal effective earth radius factor statistics obtained from the radiosonde measurements are then interpolated, gridded and presented in contour maps to cover the rest of the country for the four seasons defined by ITU-R recommendation P.453-10. The Integral of Square Error is used to check the performance of the data modeling techniques while the Root Mean Square Error is used to compare the performance of the different interpolation methods used.