Rain attenuation on earth-satellite paths — summary of 10-year experiments and studies

Since 1969, the Bell System has been conducting continuous rain attenuation experiments on earth-satellite paths. The experiments were carried out at four New Jersey sites by the radio basic research group of the Crawford Hill Laboratory, and at three Georgia sites, two Illinois sites, and two Colorado sites by the radio system engineering group of the Holmdel Laboratory. The measurement frequencies include 11.7, 13.6, 15.5, 17.8, 19, and 28.5 GHz. Interim results of the 10-year (1969–1978) experiments have been published in various technical journals and conference proceedings. For the convenience of system engineers, this paper summarizes the new results and the previously published results and discusses the implications of these data to the design of satellite radio communication systems. The summary includes the geographic dependence, the frequency dependence, the diurnal, monthly, and yearly variations of rain attenuation statistics, the diversity improvement factors, the fade duration distributions, the dynamic rain attenuation behavior, the long-term (20 years) rain rate distribution for U.S. locations, and a simple empirical model for rain attenuation.