Abstract This work studies the temporal variation of rain heights in the Sub-Sahelian and Coastal regions of Nigeria using six (6) years Tropical Rain Measuring Mission Precipitation Radar (TRMM-PR) reprocessed data retrieved from the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) constellation Satellites and Era-Interim Field of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF). The research reveals seasonal, temporal as well as spatial dependence of rain height over the regions. The average annual Zero Degree Isotherm Heights (ZDIH) and rain height in the Sub-Sahelian regions are 4.796 km and 5.11 km respectively while the corresponding values in the Coastal regions are 4.845 km and 4.91 km. The results show that the values recommended by the International Telecommunication Union Radio section (ITU-R) underestimate both ZDIH and rain height. Atmospheric parameters at rain height levels were also compared with rain height. Among all the atmospheric parameters considered, the result shows that variation of rain height in both regions depends strongly on temperature with a determination coefficient (r2) of 0.73 and 0.85 in the Sub-Sahelian and Coastal regions respectively. The recommended rain heights will aid better prediction and mitigation of rain-induced attenuation to optimize the performance of earth-space satellite links in Nigeria.

中文翻译：

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尼日利亚两个地理气候区雨高大气参数廓线的时间演变

摘要 本工作使用从全球降水测量 (GPM) 星座卫星获取的六 (6) 年热带雨量测量任务降水雷达 (TRMM-PR) 再处理数据研究了尼日利亚萨赫勒以南和沿海地区降雨高度的时间变化和欧洲中期天气预报中心 (ECMWF) 的 Era-Interim Field。研究揭示了这些地区降雨高度的季节性、时间和空间依赖性。萨赫勒以南地区的年均零度等温线高度（ZDIH）和降雨高度分别为 4.796 公里和 5.11 公里，而沿海地区的相应值为 4.845 公里和 4.91 公里。结果表明，国际电信联盟无线电部门 (ITU-R) 推荐的值低估了 ZDIH 和降雨高度。降雨高度水平的大气参数也与降雨高度进行了比较。在考虑的所有大气参数中，结果表明，两个地区的降雨高度变化强烈依赖于温度，在萨赫勒以南地区和沿海地区的决定系数（r2）分别为 0.73 和 0.85。推荐的降雨高度将有助于更好地预测和减轻降雨引起的衰减，从而优化尼日利亚地球-空间卫星链路的性能。