Disdrometers are used for the measurement of rainfall intensity and drop size distribution. The purpose of the project is to install 3 disdrometers in a field trial and assess the degree to which the disdrometers agree in their measurements when co-located, and therefore exposed to the same rainfall conditions.  Knowledge of the degree of any random or instrumental errors between the disdrometers is important to the future interpretation of their data when spread along the route of the radio propagation study described below.

The immediate creative elements in the project are:

• Hardware enclosure design that enables ease of maintenance.
• A software program that delivers a user-friendly analysis of the data.
• Devising tests for and a report on the operability of the field-trial setup.

Additionally, there is the prospect of longer-term involvement as a graduate or post-graduate scholar in analysing the field-trial results and developing the propagation model based on rainfall size distributions.

• Practice and theory of rain measurements for propagation planning.
• Microwave and millimetre wave propagation.