Prediction of rain attenuation for wireless communications

The empirical formula given is very useful for the calculations of the extinction cross section (Q) and specific rain attenuation for raindrops in the frequency range from 0.6 to 100 GHz. The accuracy of the empirical formula for calculating the extinction cross section is within 8 percent error, and it provides a very simple method for quickly calculating the Q as a function of the frequency and the mean radius of the raindrops. By implementing the empirical formula of extinction cross section into the rain attenuation equation, a new numerically empirical formula for the calculation of specific rain attenuation is also established. The validity of the empirical formula for calculating the specific rain attenuation is also checked by comparing the obtained results of specific rain attenuation with those obtained from Li et al.'s solution (1995) and Yeo et al.'s (1993) measurement.