Characterization of rain attenuation in Bangladesh and application to satellite link design

For a reliable quantification of rain attenuation in an Earth-space link, determination of the temporal, year-to-year variation of rainfall is required as the distribution of rainfall is not uniform over the year. This paper discusses rainfall pattern, rain rate distribution, and rain attenuation characteristics in Bangladesh. Cumulative distribution of 1-min rain rate is derived from 40 years of daily rainfall totals using the Rice-Holmberg model. On the basis of these rain rates, rain attenuation at 18.7 GHz band is predicted by the International Telecommunication Union Radiocommunication Assembly (2003b). A reduction factor necessary to match similarly predicted rain attenuation with satellite beacon measurements at the same frequency in Sparsholt, United Kingdom, is modelled. This is applied to produce a novel rain attenuation prediction for Bangladesh where direct beacon measurements are not available. Inherent variability in this rain attenuation prediction is also quantified