Ku-band (12 GHz) earth-space rain attenuation statistics in Nonthaburi, Thailand, in 2013-2014

Rain attenuation statistics for an average year in Nonthaburi, Thailand, in 2013-2014, are presented. Particularly, two statistics were calculated from the raw and preprocessed power-level data of the Ku-band beacon signal received at the Thaicom earth station. These statistics were compared with the ITU-R prediction models in 1999 and 2007-2013. The results show that preprocessing is necessary to generate the statistics and the ITU-R prediction models are not very accurate; the ITU-R models generally tend to underestimate the rain attenuation statistics. Specifically, these models underestimate by more than 4 dB when the availability is more than 99.9%.