Predicting total tropospheric attenuation on monthly basis

This contribution presents a comprehensive methodology for the global prediction of monthly total tropospheric attenuation statistics. This goal is achieved by combining the outputs of physically-based models for the estimation of the attenuation induced by each relevant atmospheric constituent (gases, clouds and rain). To evaluate the model´s accuracy, worst month total attenuation statistics are first derived from the monthly attenuation predictions, and tests are performed against the measurements included in the global DBSG3 database of International Telecommunication Union-Radiocommunication Sector. Results show a good prediction accuracy, which corroborates the use of the proposed physical model to aid engineers in planning future high-frequency satellite communication systems on the basis of the worst month concept.