A98-18911 Rain Effects on the Domestic Communication Satellite (KOREASAT) Link

Rain attenuation of the satellite communication signals above 10 GHz can have a serious impact on the availability of satellite communication services. The severity of the rain impairments increases with frequency and varies with regional location. The characteristics of regional rain attenuation for linearly incident polarization have been determined experimentally for the first time at ETRI in Korea. The characteristics are based on measurements by ETRI receiving system using 12.25-GHz beacon transmissions from KOREASAT-1 satellite, 116°E. This paper introduces the experimental system to measure the rain attenuation, and presents the comparing results with worldwide prediction models. And finally the regional characteristics of rain attenuation were analyzed.