A Semi-2D Synthetic Storm Technique for Orbital Diversity on Earth-Space Propagation Paths

In this article, new assumptions are introduced into the well-known synthetic storm technique (SST) proposed by Drufuca and further developed by Matricciani, to address the orbital diversity in satellite links. The new approach receives as input information on collocated rain rate recordings and instantaneous estimates of the storm direction and speed; and assumes that the rain event is transversely constant to the storm movement. The achieved improvements are evaluated by analyzing two example measured rain attenuation events “seen” by two Ka-band beacon receivers looking at two different satellites spaced around in azimuth. A study is made of the cross correlation coefficient between rain attenuation series for these two links. Moreover, a methodology is sketched as to how multiple non-GEO satellite constellation availability (for global Internet access at Ka-band) could be evaluated in the frame of the SST.