RAIN EVENT DETECTION USING THE RECEIVED BEACON SIGNAL AT KA AND Q BAND

Satellite communication systems are increasingly operating at higher frequencies (Ku-band and above) to meet rising data rate demands. However, higher frequencies suffer greater degradation from tropospheric impairments, particularly rain (above 10 GHz), clouds (above 30 GHz), and atmospheric gases, making static margins insufficient. Accurate characterization of tropospheric attenuation is therefore essential in SatCom designs. Propagation campaigns provide valuable data by yielding attenuation time series, which are used to characterize the SatCom channel. To produce these attenuation time series, an operator uses of various techniques to detect rainfall along the path so that specific calibration methods can be used to distinguish the attenuation effects specifically induced by rain from any system effects. This article proposes a new event detection algorithm called Rain Event Detector, that operates solely on the received beacon signal power to detect rain events along the signal trajectory. The algorithm is tested using data from the Alphasat Aldo Paraboni propagation experiment at the Italian ground stations Tito Scalo and Spino d’Adda. Validation is performed against the same dataset but calibrated with the aid of a radiometer and visual inspection. Results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm provides reliable rainfall event detection without auxiliary equipment, offering a robust alternative when radiometer data are unavailable, and enabling continued exploitation of high-frequency SatCom links under adverse tropospheric conditions.