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.