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4.

4 Rain Attenuation
Rain attenuation is a function of rain rate. By rain rate is meant the rate at which rainwater
would accumulate in a rain gauge situated at the ground in the region of interest (e.g., at an earth
station). In calculations relating to radio wave attenuation, the rain rate is measured in millimetres per
hour. Of interest is the percentage of time that specified values are exceeded. The time percentage is
usually that of a year; for example, a rain rate of 0.001 percent means that the rain rate would be
exceeded for 0.001 percent of a year, or about 5.3 min during any one year. In this case the rain rate
would be denoted by R0.001. In general, the percentage time is denoted by p and the rain rate by Rp.
The specific
attenuation a is
a 5 aRb p dB/km
(4.2)
where a and b depend on frequency and polarization. Values for a and b are available in tabular form
in a number of publications. The values in Table 4.2 have been abstracted from Table 4.3 of Ippolito
(1986). The subscripts h and v refer to horizontal and vertical polarizations respectively.
Once the specific attenuation is found, the total attenuation is determined as
A= aL dB
(4.3)
where L is the effective path length of the signal through the rain. Because the rain density is unlikely
to be uniform over the actual pathlength, an effective path length must be used rather than the actual
(geometric) length. Figure 4.3 shows the geometry of the situation. The geometric, or slant, path
length is shown as LS. This depends on the antenna angle of elevation " and the rain height hR, which
is the height at which freezing occurs. Figure 4.4 shows curves for hR for different climatic zones. In
this figure, three methods are labeled: Method 1 maritime climates; Method 2tropical climates;
Method 3continental climates. For the last, curves are shown for p values of 0.001, 0.01, 0.1,
and 1 percent.

For small angles of elevation (El , 10), the determination of LS is complicated by earth curvature (see
CCIR Report 564-2, 1982). However, for El ! 10 a flat earth approximation may be used, and from
Fig. 4.3 it is seen that

The effective path length is given in terms of the slant length by


where rp is a reduction factor which is a function of the percentage time p and LG, the horizontal
projection of LS. From Fig. 4.3 the horizontal projection is seen to be
The reduction factors are given in Table 4.3. With all these factors together into one equation, the rain
attenuation
in decibels is given by
Example 4.1 Calculate, for a frequency of 12 GHz and for horizontal and vertical polarizations, the
rain attenuation which is exceeded for 0.01 percent of the time in any year, for a point rain rate of 10

mm/h. The earth station altitude is 600 m, and the antenna elevation angle is 50. The rain height is 3
km.
Solution The given data follows. Because the CCIR formula contains hidden conversion factors, units
will not be attached to the data, and it is understood that all lengths and heights are in kilometers, and
rain rate is in millimetres per hour.

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