Techniques for the calculation of attenuation from precipitation for single station and path diversity satellite communication systems from digital radar data

Digital radar reflectivity data may be used to estimate the slant path attenuation which would have been obtained on a ground-to-satellite path using a frequency higher than that of the original radar. The crucial role of the small intense cells is illustrated and the necessity of maintaining the radar data at their highest spatial resolution is discussed. A technique to simulate path diversity systems is demonstrated for a squall line case and shows that diversity pair orientation perpendicular to the elongation of the precipitation line studied yields the best diversity performance.