New Approach for Rainfall Monitoring

The Scientists of the Rain Cell Africa Consortium Recently Successfully Tested a Highly Innovative Method of Monitoring Rainfall by Using Mobile Antennasin Burkina Faso

The idea is simple. It means taking advantage of a property of rainfall that is well-known to telecommunications professionals: drops of water reducing the radio signal transmitted between two antennas. Two phenomena are involved. On the one hand, they absorb a fraction of the energy carried by the waves. On the other hand, they spread these waves and turn them away from their original course. So, when it rains between two antennas, the intensity of the signals received falls. This is major concern for mobile telephone companies, who measure and record these radio signal disturbances to be able to check the state of health of their network at any time.

Taking over from inadequate systems

Rainfall monitoring in Africa is a major issue for many research applications (hydrological, climatic and agricultural modelling), as well as for operational applications (meteorology, water services, food safety, drought and flood warnings, etc.). However, the observation networks on the ground (rain gauges), which are costly to implement and maintain, are inadequate and deteriorating.

Proven effectiveness

National telephone companies therefore have a wealth of information on the rains in their country. This is a godsend for rainfall monitoring and spatialisation studies, particularly in Africa. Thanks to a partnership with the Burkinabe operator Télécel Faso, researchers from the Lame laboratory at the University of Ouagadougou GET (IRD / CNRS / Toulouse 3 University) laboratories and LTHE (IRD / CNRS / Grenoble 1 University / Grenoble INP) were able to access valuable data on the reduction of the radio signal recorded by the company during the monsoon of 2012.

Source: IRD

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