OTS propagation experiments with radar, electric field and thunder location data

The use of cross polar phase in linear polarization is investigated as a method for separating differential attenuation and differential phase in satellite propagation experiments. The results of experiments studying two different types of storms, the rain dominated and the ice dominated storms, are presented. Using a simple ice model, it was found that the representation of an ice medium in terms of pure differential phase shifts between linear orthogonal eigenpolarization (principal planes) is valid, and that for ice dominated events the linear XPD vector has approximately quadrature phase. The in phase component of the linear XPD was shown to be a good measure of the differential attenuation, being substantially independent of any differential phase effects (in rain or otherwise). A rain inversion technique was developed, whose results were found to agree well with those of the ice model using derained data.