Statistical variations in forward propagation rain depolarization due to drop size fluctuations

Observed electromagnetic wave depolarization in forward propagation due to precipitation tends to distribute statistically about some mean level of depolarization. This is due to random rain parameters that cause this depolarization. Using a drop-size modified depolarization model, we have analyzed the statistical scatter of the cross polarization ratio due to random distributions of drop population and size and found a standard deviation of approximately 2.5 dB about the mean, independent of frequency.