Review of weather impact on outdoor terahertz wireless communication links

As the demand for higher wireless data rates continues to increase, there has been more interest in extending the carrier frequency of wireless links from the millimeter wave range into the terahertz (THz) range. For long distance wireless communications, THz links can suffer significant signal loss due to atmospheric weather effects. Obviously, for evaluating wireless system link budgets, it will be important to estimate the weather impact on high capacity data links and compare the performance degradation of THz links to that of the competing approach of free-space optical wireless. This paper reviews the impact of weather on THz wireless links and emphasizes THz attenuation and channel impairments caused by atmospheric gases (in particular water vapor), airborne particulates (such as dust, fog, clouds, and rain), refractive index inhomogeneities which are driven by air turbulence, and their associated scintillations.