Rain Attenuation Prediction Model for Satellite Communications in Tropical Regions

Abstract

This paper proposes a model for predicting rain attenuation in the tropical region. Slant path rain attenuation measurements were carried out in Singapore by analyzing the beacon signals from two satellites, namely WINDS and GE23, operating at frequencies of 18.9 and 12.75 GHz, respectively. Rainfall rates at the location of the beacon receivers were recorded. The cumulative distributions of the rainfall rate and the corresponding rain attenuation are presented and analyzed. It is found that the cumulative distribution of the measured rainfall rate is close to that predicted by the ITU-R model. Measurement data from a total of nine countries are compared with four existing rain attenuation prediction models, namely the Yamada, DAH, Karasawa, and Ramachandran models. Results show that although three of these models have relatively good prediction capability for the tropical region, they could be improved. Therefore, in this paper, a slant path rain attenuation model suitable for the tropical region is proposed. This is done by using the complementary cumulative distributions of rain attenuation for satellite links measured in Singapore and five other tropical countries. The proposed model is found to outperform exisitng models.