Centimeter wave propagation experiments using the beacon signals of CS and BSE satellites

Results are presented for wave propagations experiments using the Japanese geostatinary satellites CS (20/30 GHz) and BSE (12/14 GHz). Cumulative rain attenuation and cross-polarization discrimination (XPD) statistics are presented for a three year period at 11.7 GHz (vertical polarization) and for a four year period at 19.5 GHz (circular polarization). It is found that yearly rainfall rate and attenuation distributions can be well approximated by log-normal distributions, and the XPD distribution can be well approximated by a normal distribution. Characteristics of wave propagation such as the effective path length, frequency dependence of attenuation, and joint statistics of attenuation and XPD are derived. Several prediction methods of calculating attenuation and XPD statistics are applied to the data obtained in this study, and the predicted results are compared with the measured ones. It is determined that some corrections are required when the XPD statistics are predicted from the attenuation statistics using the theoretical relation between XPD and attenuation.