Measurements of K-band scintillation on a low elevation satellite-Earth path in Norway

The objective of this study is to characterise K-band (20 GHz) space-Earth propagation scintillation at Vadso, Norway. A literature study of scintillation impairments for communication via geostationary satellites has been carried out. An experiment designed for beacon measurements and 7 months of measurements are described and analysed. Scintillation is extracted from the data by highpass filtering. A 0.008 Hz filter cut-off frequency is identified by spectral analysis and analysis of the original time series. Diurnal variation of scintillation shows similar levels of variation compared with previously reported except for May and July where this variation is significantly reduced. The observed variations do not follow available cloud observation data well. Monthly and long term statistics of scintillation fading are compared with available models, with most models overpredicting the expected values. The differences are most significant in the month of April.