Performance of orbital diversity systems and comparisons with site diversity in earth-space radiolinks affected by rain attenuation

Abstract

During the summer periods of 1981 and 1982, an experiment has been carried out at the station at Spino d' Adda (in the Po River V alley) aiming at evaluating t he statistical performance of diversity systems for earth to satellite links experiencing rain attenuation. The data were collected by a S band meteorological radar scanning a 32 inclined plane h aving the SIR10 path as its highest radial. Attenuation values directly measured through the satellite beacon at 11.6 GHz were used to calibrate t he radar on event b asis, in order to properly ccnvert reflectivity into specific attenuation. In a p revious paper the performance of site diversity systems has been presented, for earth terminals spaced from 1 to 20 km. In this paper the same set of data is processed to simulate orbital diversity systems, i.e. the use of two satellites angularly spaced and one earth t erminal. Aperture angles