Application of a statistical raindrop canting angle model on terrestrial and satellite links

A statistical model estimating the mean and standard deviation of each drop-size canting angle, assuming Gaussian canting-angle distributions is presented. The model utilises the one-dimensional energy spectrum of horizontal turbulence given by Smith (1975) and, using the differential equation for the horizontal-drop movement, it calculates the mean and standard deviation of each drop-size canting angle. Comparison with Saunders's (1971) work shows good agreement. Application of the model to terrestrial nd satellite links shows that, for rain alone, the crosspolarisation-discrimination variations for satellite paths are much higher than in the terrestrial case, and that the crosspolarisation-discrimination mean values are lower for terrestrial paths.