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The attenuation due to rain is one of the main impairments in satellite communications. It is well known that rain attenuation is dependent on the elevation angle of the link, being more severe at low elevation angles; this has a definite impact on the design of TLC and data download systems based on low earth orbit (LEO) satellites. As measurements at various elevation angles are seldom available, it is necessary to use prediction and scaling models. This paper presents a simple model to scale long-term rain attenuation statistics as a function of link elevation angle. The model receives as input the known complementary cumulative distribution (CCDF) at a specific elevation and generates the CCDF scaled at other elevation angles.

This contribution is intended to provide a preliminary quantification of the expected atmospheric impairments suffered from a radio wave at frequency above 50 GHz, as it could be theoretically derived by extrapolating the present theoretical and experimental knowledge. We have addressed the role of gases, clouds, scintillation and rain (with emphasis also on the impact of the hydrometeor size distribution) on the attenuation level, the melting layer characteristics and the depolarization of the electromagnetic waves travelling through the atmosphere.