Fade duration statistics ofL-band multipath fading due to sea surface reflection

Multipath fading in maritime satellite communications may be caused by a combination of sea surface reflection and tropospheric effects such as ducting and scintillations. Among them, multipath fading due to sea reflection is dominant when receiving satellite signals by use of a wide beamwidth antenna. In this paper, fade duration statistics of multipath fading due to sea surface reflection are analyzed using the data obtained by on-board experiments on the
L
-band (1.54 GHz). Results indicate that the mean value of fade duration and fade occurrence interval can be determined from the fading power spectrum with fairly good precision, and that the probability density function for a given time percentage, ranging from 50 to 99 percent, approximates well with the exponential distribution. Finally, based on the results obtained, a simple method for estimating the mean values of fade duration and fade occurrence interval is presented.