Earth-space propagation studies related to satellite communications in the tropical region

An ever increasing growth in satellite services has pushed up the frequencies for satellite communications to Ku/Ka bands and even to higher frequencies for specific applications. At these frequencies the satellite signals confront propagation effects over Earth-space paths that degrade the performance of the satellite links. The propagation measurements at frequencies above 10 GHz have been carried out fairly extensively in the temperate climatic region. However, the situation in the tropical region is not as encouraging since the data coverage for this region is so far inadequate, particularly in view of the fact that this region has much more complex and varying rain environment compared to the temperate region.