Characteristics of the spatial statistical dependence of rainfall rate over large areas

The design of on-board common resources systems that are envisaged for advanced satellites operating simultaneously to a large number of widely space earth stations is discussed. Based on 50 locations and 10 yr of rain data in Italy, the design-oriented figures for the probability of joint rain attenuation outages occurring at two or more of the assisted stations are derived, and why the assumption of statistical independence cannot be made at least before about 800 km is shown. The spatial large-scale structure of the rain is also studied by means of a statistical dependence index, which allows for a general description of the meteorological mechanisms independent of the considered data