Application of synthetic storm technique for rain attenuation prediction at Ka and Q band for a temperate Location, Vigo, Spain

Abstract

Time series prediction of rain attenuation from rain rate measurement during rain is made by using Synthetic Storm Technique (SST) for Ka and Q band signal for a temperate location, Vigo, Spain. Rain rate and rain attenuation data for the three year measurement period from 2016 to 2018 have been used to test the validity of the SST model at the present location. As we move from the Ka band to the Q band, larger value of predicted rain attenuation for the same rain rate is observed. For a single rain event, better prediction depends on the actual storm speed measured for the present location. But the long term statistics of predicted rain attenuation are insensitive to storm translation speed. Applicability of the SST model is tested for predicting diurnal, monthly and yearly statistics. Comparison between prediction and measurements are done for both first (rain attenuation occurrence) and second order (fade duration) statistics. Good matching has been observed between prediction and measurement for single rain event as well as for long term statistics. Prediction errors are found to be less than 0.5 dB in all the cases which proves the efficiency of the SST model for the present location.