Extracting scintillations from satellite beacon propagation data

Abstract

Beacon measurements on a moderate elevation satellite link at 20 and 30 GHz during concurrent scintillation and rain attenuation are analyzed. The spectra of the two beacon signals are compared and scintillation amplitudes are extracted from the raw beacon data using a high-pass filter set at 14 different cutoff frequencies f/sub c/ ranging between 2-400 mHz. The effect on scintillation statistics of the choice of f/sub c/ and the dependence of this choice on path elevation angle are discussed.