18.7 GHz tropospheric scintillation and simultaneous rain attenuation measured at Spino d'Adda and Darmstadt with Italsat

Abstract

We present experimental results on the relationship between rain attenuation and simultaneous scintillation, obtained with measurements of attenuation time series at 18.7 GHz, collected in two slant paths to Italsat (13.2° E): at Spino d'Adda (Italy, a 37.7° slant path, times series of 50 samples/s and 1 sample/s) and Darmstadt (Germany, a 32.7° slant path, 1 sample/s). We have found that the average rain attenuation A (dB) and the average standard deviation σm(dB) in 1 -min intervals (calculated from the 1 sample/s time series), of the scintillation standard deviation a (dB), are linked by a power law σm C 3aA5/12, or by the more refined model σm = C 3bA5/12/09, that can be due to an effective thin layer of turbulence aloft. The constants C3a,3bcan be estimated by applying the ITU-R formula for scintillation predictions. For conservative design, a best fit model of the conditional standard deviation of a is also provided, as a function of A, as σs = CSAd (dB), where C s and d are constants. ©2008 by the American Geophysical Union.