Attenuation on surface microwave links - Effect of link direction

The paper considers the use of radar data as the basis for calculation of attenuation by rain along surface (i.e., tower to tower) microwave communication links. Link lengths of 48 km (maximum) were used, centered on stations located every 15 deg along circles at ranges 87, 71 and 59 km, and additional information was obtained from stations at range 49 km, where the link length was limited to 24 km (maximum). The array of radar links provides sufficient processed data from a few hours' radar records for a circular region of diameter 220 km, making it possible to derive useful statistics regarding a single storm passage. Statistics for radar synthetic links resembled those for radar direct links closely enough to support the use of the synthetic storm procedure for surface links.