First attempts at modelling earth-to-space radio propagation using SIRIO measurements in the 11 and 18 GHz bands

A bi-dimensional statistical model for earth-to-space radio links, characterized by effective rain rates and rain path lengths is proposed. These parameters refer to an equivalent homogeneous slab of rain having depth and rain rate such as to produce similar values of measured attenuations. Input data for the present study were attenuation data at 11.6 GHz (absolute and differential over a 520 MHz band) and 17 GHz, collected by theSIRIOsatellite: these data were found to be jointly log-normally distributed as were the effective rain rate and path length. A straightforward application of the model is the extrapolation of attenuation statistics to higher frequencies: the effectiveness of the method, when applied to 11.6 GHz data is tested against the data at 17 GHz; both the statistics and the time profiles are excellently reproduced. This suggests the use of a differential radiometer working at a relatively low frequency in order to acquire reliable higher frequency statistics and effective model parameters.