Analysis of the effects of water on the ACTS propagation terminal antenna

The NASA advanced communications technology satellite (ACTS) propagation experiment was designed to observe the attenuation produced by rain on Earth-satellite paths operating in the Ka-band. Unwanted effects of water on the antenna reflector surface were noted. Wet-antenna attenuation could be attributed to the combined effect of a water layer on the reflector surface and water wetting the feed window surface. A model was developed to calculate the antenna reflector and feed surface water layer thickness values as a function of position on each surface. The thickness values were used to calculate the additional attenuation produced by the water layers as a function of rain rate on the antenna. The wet-antenna-attenuation prediction model was verified by sprayer tests. The goal of the ACTS propagation experiment was to obtain path attenuation statistics, statistics that represent the effects of rain on the Earth-satellite path but not on the antenna itself. The wet-antenna attenuation prediction model was used to remove the effects of water on the antenna from the combined antenna-plus-path attenuation statistics produced by the experiment. The overall efficacy of the model was demonstrated by comparing the corrected path loss statistics from two ACTS propagation experiment sites with earlier COMSTAR path loss measurements made at or near those sites. The empirical distribution functions from both the ACTS and COMSTAR experiments were identical within the expected uncertainty of an empirical annual distribution of attenuation by rain.     

A rain attenuation model for satellite link attenuation predictions incorporating the spatial inhomogeneity of rainrate

A model describing the spatial inhomogeneity of rainrate within a rain cell is derived and incorporated into a specific attenuation model to yield a more exact relationship than has been used heretofore relating rainrate and the attendant attenuation at frequencies above 10 GHz. The resulting unified attenuation model relates terrestrial and slant path attenuation, effective propagation distance and path diversity gain to parameters characterizing the earth-station or stations (e.g. location, height, latitude, elevation angle and baseline distance from another station), the frequency of operation, and the two possible raintypes admitted into the model (i.e. convective rain and residual or debris rain). The model is particularly suited for the theoretical investigation of path diversity gain since this concept owes its existence to spatial inhomogeneity of rainrate. This inhomogeneous rain attenuation model can be interfaced with an appropriate statistical rainrate prediction model, such as the Crane two-component model, to yield more precise attenuation predictions.     

On the rain attenuation dynamics: spatial‐temporal analysis of rainfall rate and fade duration statistics

Knowledge about the dynamic characteristics of rain attenuation is of utmost importance for many applications in terrestrial and satellite communication systems operating at frequencies above 10 GHz. Long‐term rain rate statistics and rain rate duration statistics are usually available from meteorological data. In this paper, a spatial–temporal analysis is employed in order to evaluate the rain attenuation power spectrum of a terrestrial/satellite path. The predicted power spectrum is compared with experimental data. Based on the spectral analysis of rainfall rate a method for converting rain rate duration statistics to link fade duration statistics is also proposed. Fade duration statistics are presented for terrestrial and satellite links and compared with available experimental data. The agreement between the predicted results and the experimental data has been found to be quite encouraging. Finally, numerical results are presented for various climatic zones, elevation angles and frequencies. Some very useful conclusions concerning the dynamic properties of rain attenuation for a microwave path are deduced. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The application of S-band polarimetric radar measurements toKa-band attenuation prediction

In September 1993, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) was deployed into a geostationary orbit near 100° W longitude. The ACTS satellite employs two Ka-band beacons, one at 20.185 GHz and another at 27.505 GHz. Impairments due to rain attenuation and tropospheric scintillations will significantly affect new technologies for this spectrum. Heavy rain at Ka-band can easily produce 30 dB of attenuation along the propagation path. Propagation experiments being conducted in seven different climatic zones involve multiyear attenuation measurements along the satellite-Earth slant path. Measurements in the B2 climatic zone are made with an ACTS propagation terminal located in northeast Colorado. In order to gain move understanding about the physical processes that are responsible for Ka-band attenuation, the Colorado State University CHILL S-band polarimetric radar is used to take radar measurements along the slant path. The Colorado Front Range experiences a variety of weather conditions throughout the year ranging from upslope rain conditions to winter storms. Four such events measured along the slant path are illustrated in this paper. They include two convective cases and two “bright-band” cases. The S-band polarimetric radar data is used to initialize radar-based attenuation-prediction models, which are applied to the four precipitation events described. The comparisons of predicted attenuation to measured attenuation are quite good. It was also found during the course of the experiment that water droplets standing on the antenna surface can cause appreciable attenuation at Ka-band frequencies. That finding needs to be recognized in future model development and statistical analysis     

Effect of wet antenna attenuation on propagation data statistics

Wet antenna attenuation during rain events is examined through carrying out simulated rain experiments. These were conducted on the receiving antenna of the Vancouver ACTS terminal under conditions similar to those prevalent when the propagation data on the Vancouver ACTS path were collected. The findings from these experiments are used to estimate path attenuation data for that path by adjusting the collected data for wet antenna attenuation via two different models. Primary and secondary statistics of the path attenuation data derived from the models at the two ACTS frequencies, nominally 20 and 27 GHz, are computed and compared with those for the unadjusted, measured data. This was done for the four-year period of December 1993 to November 1997 and includes average and worst month cumulative distribution functions and fade-duration and fade-slope statistics. While the two models yield similar statistics, these differ significantly from those derived from the unadjusted data. The comparison of the two sets of statistics suggests that the use of those of the unadjusted data to represent path attenuation would grossly exaggerate the requirements for system design     

5G毫米波短距离链路雨衰减特性分析

雨衰减严重影响第5代(the 5th Generation,5G)移动通信系统性能.在路径长度小于1 km的短距离链路情况下,现有雨衰减预测模型调整因子大于1,导致预测雨衰减随路径变短而增大,无法支撑毫米波短距离链路系统设计.通过分析国际电信联盟无线电通信部(Radiocommunication Sector of International Telecommunication Union,ITU-R)短距离链路雨衰减试验数据,发现湿天线衰减与路径雨衰减相当,得到毫米波短距离链路必须考虑湿天线衰减的结论.建立了湿天线衰减与降雨率的关系模型,分频段对模型参数进行了拟合,拟合结果与实测数据吻合得较好.提出了考虑湿天线衰减的短距离雨衰减建模新思路,可解决短距离雨衰减预测问题.研究结果有助于提高5G毫米波系统余量设计的可靠性.     

Up-link power control of satellite earth-stations as a fade countermeasure of 20/30 GHz communications systems

All 20/30 GHz satellite communications systems suffer from atmospheric attenuation in cloudy or rainy weather, particularly if high link availabilities are required. In FDMA systems the power transfer characteristic of each carrier is linear, so any up-link fade degrades the overall performance on a dB-by-dB basis. This, together with the fact that the 30 GHz up-link attenuation is much greater than the 20 GHz down-link attenuation, makes adaptive countermeasures of up-link fades most important. This paper shows how the overall link performance can be improved by applying up-link power control. It is explained how this improvement depends on the up-link/down-link balance, the dynamic range of the up-link power control, and the up-link and down-link atmospheric attenuation. If a small number of carriers can be allocated in an intermodulation-free frequency plan, the satellite transponder can be operated near saturation in order to optimize the down-link performance. Computer simulations of up-link power control for such an FDMA scheme have been performed based on measured three-carrier characteristics of a transponder TWT. It is shown that the overall link performance in faded conditions can be significantly improved with up-link power control. This may be utilized to increase the availability of a satellite link or to relax the earth-station performance in terms of G/T or EIRP if the link margin provided by an earth-station with fixed EIRP is satisfactory.     

Rain Rate Statistics and Fade Distribution of Millimeter Waves in Indian Continents

For any communication service operating in the Microwave/ Millimeter wave region, statistical information characterising the attenuation due to rain along satellite slant path would be required for the design of satellite communication links and for the broadcasting network above 20 Ghz. It is necessary to have a prior knowledge of the probability of exceeding different levels of rain attenuation in order to design appropriate fade margins into systems and establishing estimates of the year to year variability of rain fade margin for particular geographic regions of India so that the communication system reflects the extremes of these variabilities. Direct measurement of beacon signals from geostationary satellites have been a mean to determine the above information and experiments can be pursued with satellite such as INSAT. [1] Attenuatiuon of Millimeter Waves by rainfall restricts the path length of a communication system. A knowledge of the rain attenuation at such frequencies is therefore desirable in designing a reliable communication system. Signal level fading over line-of-sight links strongly depends on the hop length, frequency and climate. For short hops, the probability of occurance of deep fades becomes diminishingly small. However, since an extended hop length is possible for regions with little rain activity, clear weather fading can affect the link reliability in a similar way ti a rain.[2]     

Numerical investigation of intense rainfall effects on coherent and incoherent slant-path propagation at K-band and above

A model investigation is carried out to analyze the impact of intense rainfall on slant-path microwave propagation, using a rainfall microphysical model. The effects are evaluated both for path attenuation, undergone by coherent radiation, and for multiple scattering phenomena, originating incoherent radiation along the path. Atmospheric spatial inhomogeneity is taken into account. The EM propagation model is formulated by means of the radiative transfer theory. The propagation model is applied both to simplified rain slabs and to vertically and horizontally inhomogeneous raining cloud structures in order to compare the impact of atmospheric models on coherent and incoherent propagation. Beacon frequencies between 20 and 50 GHz, elevation angles between 20/spl deg/ and 40/spl deg/ and surface rain rates from 1 to 100 mm/h are considered. Appropriate sensitivity analysis parameters are defined to present and discuss the numerical results. Our main conclusion is that the impact of the convective rainfall structure can be significant both in determining total attenuation and quantifying the contribution of multiple scattering to the received power. For intense rainfall, the use of a rain slab model can both overestimate coherent attenuation and underestimate incoherent intensity. The analysis of realistic raining clouds structures reveals the significance of modeling the volumetric albedo of precipitating ice, particularly at V-band. Total path attenuation can strongly depend on the pointing direction of the receiving antenna due to the intrinsic variability of the precipitating cloud composition along the slant path. Coupling cloud-resolving models with radiative transfer schemes may be foreseen as a new approach to develop statistical prediction methods at Ka-band and above in a way analogous to that pursued by using weather-radar volume data.     

Earth-station size Vs. Error-correction coding in the design of ku-band satellite communications systems

A Ku-band satellite transponder capacity is evaluated for a PCM/QPSK/FDMA system in which many carriers are transmitted in an SCPC mode. The capacity depends on earth-station sizes, error-correction coding, required signal-to-noise ratio and required availability in rain; for simplicity all of these parameters are assumed to be the same for all carriers in the transponder. A method of accounting for the effects of rain is developed; it is assumed that the earth-stations do not adjust their output power when it rains. Trade-offs between earth-station sizes and error-correction code rates are examined.     

Rain Attenuation at 10-30 GHz Along Earth-Space Paths: Elevation Angle, Frequency, Seasonal, and Diurnal Effects

Three experimental programs at Bell Laboratories, Crawford Hill, NJ, have collected rain attenuation data at three frequencies in the 10-30 GHz range for over 2 years. As expected from a simple geometrical model, rain attenuation statistics scale approximately as the cosecant of the path elevation angle. Thus, greater attenuation is encountered on lower elevation angle paths. The increased rain attenuation at higher frequencies is illustrated by comparing cumulative rain attenuation distributions at three widely separated frequencies. Typical year-to-year variations in these distributions are presented. Periods of severe rain attenuation are shown to occur more frequently during the summer months and during the afternoon hours. Cumulative attenuation distributions are compared for these and other time periods.     

降雨对于CAPS微小卫星终端通信的影响

中国区域卫星定位系统（CAPS）是卫星导航通信一体化的系统。当利用CAPS微小卫星终端系统进行卫星通信时,所用的天线口径极小,增益低,终端的有效全向辐射功率EIRP。较小,整个通信链路的余量较小。虽然C波段的降雨衰减远没有Ku波段大,但是相对于微小卫星终端的整个卫星通信链路来说,降雨带来的信号衰减、地球站接收天线G／T值的变化以及对卫星通信上、下行链路载噪比的影响也是不可忽视的。文章对这些影响进行了分析,并利用ITU—R给出的降雨衰减预报模式,给出了C波段的降雨衰减的计算方法及结果,并且分析了降雨对CAPS微小卫星通信系统的整个链路余量的影响。     

地空路径统计雨衰减建模的几个问题

地空路径雨衰减统计特性是卫星通信等地空无线电系统设计和运行评估的关键参数.针对地空路径统计雨衰减的建模研究, 分析了影响模型准确度的几个关键因素, 它们包括雨滴谱分布、雨顶高度、降雨率在水平和垂直路径的不均匀性等.同时比较分析了现有主要模型计算的路径调整因子随仰角的变化、与频率的关系等, 讨论了现有模型的局限性和可能的改进途径.通过上述对比研究, 提出了地空路径雨衰减统计建模向确定性模型方向发展的观点.     

武警卫星通信系统的雨衰估算及分析

由于雨衰是影响卫星通信的重要因素,根据武警部队卫星通信网建设的需要,基于ITU-R制定的雨衰计算模型,选取6个典型城市进行雨衰计算,得到雨衰对Ku波段卫星通信系统的影响,分析得出地星路径仰角越小,海拔越低,降雨率越大,降雨造成的信号衰减越大。     

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 the Sirio satellite: 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.     

Rain induced attenuation prediction model for terrestrial and satellite-Earth microwave links

At microwave frequencies, rain is the main cause of degradation of the performances of satellite and terrestrial communications systems, essentially in tropical zones. The design and implementation of such systems involve the knowledge of the propagation parameters which govern link availability and service quality. Thus it seems desirable to develop prediction methods for deriving approximate attenuation statistics for any microwave link. In this paper, a rain induced attenuation model using the concept of equivalent path length is proposed for terrestrial and satellite links. As far as slant paths are concerned, the proposed prediction model uses a parameter, the value of which depends on the geographical zone. These values are given for zones where data are available : Europe, Australia, USA, Japan. The version of the model proposed for Australia (in its tropical part) can be extended to all other tropical zones of the world.     

Rainfall propagation impairments for medium elevation angle satellite‐to‐earth 12 GHz in the tropics

Rain attenuation is the dominant propagation impairment for satellite communication systems operating at frequencies above about 10 GHz. The rainfall path attenuation at 12.255 GHz measured at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) for 4 years (2 January to 5 December) is presented. This paper presents an empirical analysis of rain rate and rain attenuation cumulative distribution functions obtained using 1‐min integrated rainfall data and comparison of the measured data with data obtained from well‐established rain model attenuation predictions. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Experimental results on bistatic rain scattering at 14.3 GHz

A bistatic rain scatter experiment at 14.3 GHz was conducted on two scattering paths. The experiment was made for more than two years on the Kashima-Inubo path and for more than one year on the Kashima-Hiraiso path. Statistical analyses of the data were made to obtain, e.g., cumulative distributions of the received power, worst month statistics of the received power, and cumulative duration time distributions of the received power. It is found that the effect of rain attenuation reduces statistical variations of the received power. A brief discussion on the prediction of the received power is presented. Also presented are the experimental results showing that the effect of antenna polarization on the received power is well described by the Mie theory.     

Proposed novel technique for the measurement of antenna gain in satellite earth-stations

In the design of communication satellite systems, knowledge of earth-station receive antenna gain and gain stability is essential. Gain measurement relies on the establishment of a constant receive signal flux. This paper attempts to show how a standard gain horn and a reference source can be used together with a closed-loop satellite ALC circuit to provide a stable, known received flux at the input of the earth-station antenna with unknown gain. Theoretical limitations of the technique are discussed as a forerunner to future practical measurements. Elements of the reference receive chain are transportable and can therefore be used to cross-calibrate antennas, even in the case of receive-only terminals.     

Radio propagation for space communications systems

This paper presents a review of the most recent information on the effects of the earth's atmosphere on space communications systems. The design and reliable operation of satellite systems which provide the many applications in space and rely on the transmission of radio waves for communications and scientific purposes are dependent on the propagation characteristics of the transmission path. The presence of atmospheric gases, clouds, fog, precipitation, and turbulence cause uncontrolled variations in the signal characteristics which can result in a reduction of the quality and reliability of the transmitted information. Models and techniques used in the prediction of atmospheric effects as influenced by frequency, geography, elevation angle, and type of transmission are discussed. Recent data on performance characteristics obtained from direct measurements on satellite links operating to above 30 GHz are reviewed. Particular emphasis is placed on the effects of precipitation on the earth-space path, including rain attenuation, and rain and ice-particle depolarization. Sky noise, antenna gain degradation, scintillations, and bandwidth coherence are also discussed. The impact of the various propagation factors on communications system design criteria is presented. These criteria include link reliability, power margins, noise contributions, modulation and polarization factors, channel crosstalk, error-rate, and bandwidth limitations.