Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 6, 2026

Experimental Methods of Dust Charging and Mobilization on Surfaces with Exposure to Ultraviolet Radiation or Plasmas
Published on: April 3, 2018
Attenuation of an electromagnetic wave by charged dust particles in a sandstorm
Li Xie1, Xingcai Li, Xiaojing Zheng
1Key Laboratory of Mechanics on Western Disaster and Environment, Department of Mechanics, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China.
Abstract:
We calculate the light scattering properties of the partially charged dust particles with the Mie theory for electromagnetic waves with different frequencies, and the attenuation coefficients of an electromagnetic wave propagating in a sandstorm are also calculated. The results show that the electric charges distributed on the sand surface have a significant effect on the attenuation of the electromagnetic wave, especially for a frequency lower than 40 GHz, and attenuation coefficients increase with the magnitude of charges carried by the dust particles (expressed by the charge-to-mass ratio in this paper). For the higher frequency electromagnetic wave, such as visible light, the effect of charges carried by sand particles on its attenuation is very little, which can be ignored.
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