Analysis of bright-band height data from TRMM-PR for satellite communication in Durban, South Africa

In this paper, 4-year precipitation data obtained from Tropical Rain Measuring Mission-Precipitation Radar (TRMM-PR) satellite were processed and used to determine the distribution of rain height based on 0⁰C isotherm height over Durban in South Africa. The results show that there is a strong variation of bright-band height over the years of observation and will mostly lie between 3639 m and 4197 m above mean sea level. The observed rain height lies between 4517 m and 4803 m. Comparison of the observed results show that the International Telecommunication Union - Recommendation (ITU-R) P.839 recommended values were underestimated. Thus, the specific attenuation values are determined using ITU-R P.618 by incorporating the determined rain height for the location of Durban. It is noticed that the differences between the estimated attenuation based on the measured rain height and the established ITU-R rain height can be as high as 8 dB at Ka band. Thus, recommending using the physical information about rain height derived from the local databases to improve in the rain attenuation prediction accuracy for this region.