Joint results of long-term earth-space propagation experiments at 20-GHz in Canada and Europe

Abstract

Propagation effects such as rain or clouds attenuation cause deeper fades in the Ka-band than at lower frequencies.In this collaborative paper, the main results of four long-term Ka-band propagation campaigns are presented. The experiments are carried out in Ottawa, Canada; Aveiro, Portugal; Madrid, Spain; and Toulouse, France. Attenuation statistics are derived from satellite beacon data collected over 6 years at Aveiro, 5 years at Ottawa and Madrid and 2 years at Toulouse. Multi-year measurements allow the production of more stable statistics reflecting the long-term behavior of propagation phenomena and to investigate its year-to-year variability. The beacon signal data was monitored and collected on a continuous basis over the whole measurement period. After a brief introduction of the experiments, rain rate and excess attenuation results are discussed, first for a common measurement period and later for the whole database available. Seasonal attenuation statistics for Ottawa and Aveiro are compared. Finally, fade duration and fade slope statistics derived at three locations are presented and discussed.

Experimental assessment of snow‐induced attenuation on an Earth‐space link operating at Ka‐band

“…A propagation campaign using the 20.2 GHz beacon of the Anik F2 satellite and auxiliary equipment started at CRC in 2006, with the purpose of investigating the dynamic behavior of rain attenuation and, further, the absorption due to clouds and atmospheric gases. Descriptions of the measurement setup along with results on rain attenuation analysis can be found in Amaya and Nguyen [] and Amaya et al [].…”

“…Rain is the main contributor to beacon signal absorption on satellite links operating above 10 GHz, as shown by long‐term propagation campaigns [e.g., Amaya et al, ; Garcia‐Rubia et al, ]. However, in northern latitude locations like Ottawa, a rather substantial number of snowfall events occur during the winter months.…”

Three‐year fade and inter‐fade duration statistics from the Q‐band Alphasat propagation experiment in Madrid

“…The details of the mathematical development that leads to Equation 8 are given in this Appendix. As shown in Section 4.1, starting from Equation 3 and for a given threshold A th , the probability of occurrence P(D| D ≥ D 0 ), P (D) in simplified notation, can be expressed as the combination of two log-normal functions:…”

Inter‐annual variability, risk and confidence intervals associated with propagation statistics. Part II: parameterization and applications

“…As refers to the correlation function of the Bernoulli process derived from rain attenuation ( X = A ) or rainfall rate ( X = R ) time series, several experimental databases have been considered.Rain attenuation experimental time series X(t) = A(t) (sampling time Δ t = 1s):Seven years of rain attenuation time series collected in Spino d'Adda (45.4°N, 9.5°E), Italy, during the ITALSAT propagation experiment at 18.7, 39.6 and 49.5 GHz between 1994 and 2000 ().Two years and 5 months of rain attenuation time series collected in Darmstadt (49.86°N, 8.63°E), Germany, during the ITALSAT propagation experiment at 18.7 and 39.6 GHz between 1995 and 1997 ().Two years of rain attenuation time series collected in Toulouse (43.57°N, 1.47°E), France, during the HOTBIRD 6 propagation experiment at 19.7 GHz between 2009 and 2011 ().Six years of rain attenuation time series collected in Ottawa (45.35°N, 75.89°E), Canada, during the ANIK F2 propagation experiment at 20.2 GHz between 2006 and 2011 ().Rainfall rate experimental time series X(t) = R(t) (sampling time Δ t = 60 s):Eight years of rainfall rate time series collected in Spino d'Adda (Italy) between 1993 and 2000 ().Three years of rainfall rate time series collected in Ottawa (Canada) between 2009 and 2011 ().…”