Investigation of Rain Attenuation in Equatorial Kuala Lumpur

This contribution investigates rain attenuation in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, by exploiting local Drop Size Distribution (DSD) measurements. Coefficients for the well- established power law model relating rain rate and specific attenuation are derived for frequencies in the Ku, Ka and Q/V bands based on three years of disdrometer data. We analyze the diurnal variation of rainfall rate for four time intervals, and, moreover, we present statistics of rain attenuation for slant path Earth-space links estimated by means of a new model (Stratiform-Convective SST) which combines the advantages of the Dual-Layer Synthetic Storm Technique (SST) and of the SC EXCELL model. The predicted statistics are in good agreement with those obtained from beacon measurements (MEASAT-1 satellite at 12 GHz). Finally, the diurnal variation of the slant path rain attenuation is presented to provide system operators and radio communication engineers with useful information on the Quality of Service (QoS) that can be achieved during a typical day on an Earth-space link.