A strategy for successful deep space information transmission in bad weather

To retrieve data during bad weather, most missions slow the data rate to accommodate a certain amount of attenuation, or to allow for all but a very small percentage of all-weather conditions. This system has two well-known and balancing disadvantages: no data is received reliably during very bad weather, and the data rate is slowed during good weather. A system of processing is described that encodes the most critical data more heavily, allowing it to be retrieved under bad conditions, while at the same time allowing most of the data to be sent at a higher data rate.