Modified ITU-R slant path rain attenuation model for the tropical region

Abstract

This paper proposes a model for predicting the rain attenuation along the earth-space slant propagation path. The experiment results collected for rainfall rate and for rain attenuation is described. The rainfall rate from a rain gauge and the rain attenuation for three satellite signal in both the Ku and Ka band are analyzed and used. Based on the rainfall rate data and the Ku and Ka-band beacon data collected in Singapore, a modification to the existing ITU-R rain attenuation prediction model is proposed. The proposed rain attenuation model uses the complete rainfall rate cumulative distribution, frequency and elevation angle as the input data. The proposed model shows significant improvement in term of rain attenuation prediction error over the ITU-R model.