Excess attenuation of millimeter waves at window region due to atmospheric water vapor

The attenuation of 245.52 GHz millimeter wave was measured through a near ground horizontal path in order to study the anomalous water vapor absorption at the window region. The result demonstrates that the attenuation coefficient includes the quadratic dependence on the water vapor density. The quadratic component of the water vapor density in the expression of the attenuation was assumed to arises from the contribution of water dimers alone, then the concentration of water dimers was estimated adopting the published theoretical water dimers absorption coefficient. The obtained concentration was 0.062% of monomers in number when the water vapor density is 7.5 g/m³. This concentration is in agreement with the published result obtained by way of another method.