The horizontal structure of rain and its impact on the design of advanced satellite systems at centimetre and millimetre wavelengths

The paper deals with the severe propagation problems that will be probably encountered in designing the future satellite communication systems in the Ka band and above and with some possible advanced solutions based on the knowledge of the local climatology. Within the very wide spectrum of new envisaged systems two particularly significant examples have been selected: the TV-sat at 22 GHz and the feeder-links at 20-30 GHz when site diversity configurations will be necessary as expected with low elevation orbiting satellites. As shown in the paper, by exploiting to the maximum extent the available meteorological information, very effective fading and power-saving countermeasures can be envisaged.