Cross polarization on line-of-sight links in a tropical location: effects of the variation in canting angle and rain dropsize distributions

The effects of the variation in canting angle of falling raindrops and the distribution of raindrop sizes in different types of rain on cross polarization discrimination (XPD) on line-of-sight propagation paths in a tropical location in the frequency range 1-50 GHz are investigated. The dropsize distribution (DSD) model of Adimula and Ajayi (see Ann. Telecomm., vol.51, no.1/2, p.87-93, 1996) has been used. Although, some previous studies of XPD assumed equi-orientation of the raindrops along the propagation paths, the present study employs the more realistic distribution of canting angles along the path. The results obtained show that the XPD improves by about 4-7 dB over those based on the equi-orientation model. It is also shown that for the same copolar fade and for frequencies greater than about 10 GHz, the variation of the XPD with copolar attenuation (CPA) is relatively insensitive to the assumed DSD in rain and that the deterioration in signal quality or outage will be influenced more by the signal attenuation rather than by the cross-polarization interference.