A new global prediction model of rain attenuation that separately accounts for stratiform and convective rain

At frequencies above 10 GHz, one of the most important impairments on radio wave propagation is attenuation due to rain. This contribution is aimed to present an improved version of the EXCELL rain attenuation model [1], which, analogously to the original one, predicts attenuation through a rain cellular representation. The new model allows the calculation of attenuation contributions from stratiform and convective rain separately. The rationale of this proposal is the attempt to develop an even more physical prediction model of rain attenuation. In this approach, two different physical rain heights, derived from the ERA-15 database, are used for stratiform and convective rain respectively. Moreover, when considering stratiform rain, the bright band contribution to attenuation is added.