Rainfall estimation from tropospheric attenuation affecting satellite links

A novel methodology for estimating rainfall rate from satellite signals is presented. The proposed inversion algorithm yields rain rate estimates by making opportunistic use of the downlink signal and exploiting local ancillary meteorological information (0 °C isotherm height and monthly convectivity index), which can be extracted on a Global basis from Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) products. The methodology includes different expressions to take the different impact of stratiform and convective rain events on the link into due account. The model accuracy in predicting the rain rate is assessed (and compared to the one of other models), both on a statistical and on an instantaneous basis, by exploiting a full year of data collected in Milan, in the framework of the Alphasat Aldo Paraboni propagation experiment.