Analysis of Propagation of Electromagnetic Waves in Atmospheric Hydrometeors on Low-Elevation Paths

Abstract

Attenuation of electromagnetic waves in millimeter wave bands is analyzed by means of experimental measurement of received signal fluctuations on terrestrial radio links operating in frequency bands 58, 94 and 122 GHz. Long-term time series of the received signal are processed to obtain annual and two-year cumulative distributions of attenuation due to hydrometeors. The measured statistics give the attenuation higher than predicted by the model of the Recommendation ITU-R P.530. Rain intensity measured simultaneously with rain attenuation is used to obtain fitted parameters of an attenuation/intensity power-law relationship. The empirical data extracted from the experiment are compared with the results of numerical simulations of attenuation due to rain and hailstones.