Propagation of THz radiation in air over a broad range of atmospheric temperature and humidity conditions
Open accessAbstract
As the need for higher data rates for communication increases, the terahertz (THz) band has drawn considerable attention. This spectral region promises a much wider bandwidth and the transmission of large amounts of data at high speeds. However, there are still challenges that need to be addressed before the THz telecommunications technology hits the consumer market. One of the recurring concerns is that THz radiation is greatly absorbed by atmospheric water-vapor. Although many studies have presented the attenuation of THz signals under different atmospheric conditions, these results analyze specific temperature or humidity values, leaving the need for a more comprehensive analysis over a wider range of climate conditions. In this work, we present the first study of the attenuation of THz radiation over a broad range of temperatures and humidity values. It is worth noticing that all of our measurements have been undertaken at atmospheric pressure unlike many previous studies where the pressure was not kept constant for various temperatures. Furthermore, we extend our analysis beyond the impact of absolute humidity on the bit error rate in THz communications. We also discuss the refractivity of the atmosphere, examining its variations across different temperatures and humidity levels. THz propagation is studied using two different measurement systems, a long-path THz time-domain spectrometer as well as a quasi-optic setup with vector network analyze. We also compare the results with the ITU-R P.676-13 propagation model. We conclude that the attenuation at the absorption peaks increases linearly with water content and has no dependence on the temperature, while the refractive index, away from absorption lines, namely at 300 GHz shows a sub-linear increase with humidity.
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Working under standard atmospheric conditions presents challenges for THz spectroscopy, imaging, and communications because of the rotational modes of water vapor.
“Working under standard atmospheric conditions presents challenges for THz spectroscopy, imaging, and communications because of the rotational modes of water vapor.23,24”
From Dual-Beam THz Spectrometer with Low-Aberration Optics and Off-Axis Multipixel Photoconductive Emitters for Reduced Systematic Errors (2025) · cites this paper as [24]
Variations in atmospheric temperature, pressure, or humidity cause the attenuation and dispersion of THz radiation to change at frequencies close to absorption lines.
“Variations in atmospheric temperature, pressure, or humidity cause the attenuation and dispersion of THz radiation to change at frequencies close to the numerous absorption lines in this frequency band.”
From Dual-Beam THz Spectrometer with Low-Aberration Optics and Off-Axis Multipixel Photoconductive Emitters for Reduced Systematic Errors (2025) · cites this paper as [24]
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- Authors
- Taleb, F., Alfaro-Gomez, M., Al-Dabbagh, M. D., Ornik, J., Viana, J., Jäckel, A., Mach, C., Helminiak, J., Kleine-Ostman, T., Kürner, T., Koch, M., Mittleman, D. M., & Castro-Camus, E.
- Affiliations
- Philipps University of Marburg (DE)
- Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (DE)
- Technische Universität Braunschweig (DE)
- Brown University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Castro-Camus, Enrique
- ORCID
- Venue
- Scientific Reports
- Published
- 2023-11-27
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 20782-20782
- ISSN
- 2045-2322 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC10682482
- OpenAlex
- W4389049488
- Cited by
- 30
- References
- 41
- Citations by year
- 2026: 14 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 6
- FWCI
- 2.23
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Scientific Reports (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- open_UMR Marburg DSpace 10.0 (Philipps-Universität Marburg) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung
- Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnolog ía (A1-S-37249)
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (”Meteracom ” (FOR 2863))
- Philipps-Universität Marburg
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Millimeter-Wave Propagation and Modeling
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Terahertz technology and applications
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Optical Wireless Communication Technologies
- Keywords
- terahertz propagation, atmospheric attenuation, water vapor absorption, humidity, temperature dependence, atmospheric refractivity, refractive index, bit error rate, terahertz communication
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