Annual and diurnal slant path rain attenuation statistics in Athens obtained with the synthetic storm technique

We present annual/seasonal rainfall rate statistics derived from a 29-month data bank of 1 sample/min, measured by a disdrometer located inside the National Technical University of Athens Campus. We discuss both the inaccuracy and the unavailability of the measuring equipment, as well as the statistical reliability of the rainfall rate sample. Additionally, after applying the Synthetic Storm Technique on the measured rainfall rate time series, we present the first long term simulated annual/seasonal and diurnal rain attenuation statistics, at 12 GHz for a hypothetical downlink from Hellas Sat 2 to Athens. According to the results, we predict that communication downlinks working in the afternoon and early evening hours must be given an extra power margin, to compensate for high rain attenuation