Earth-space propagation through rain and associated tropospheric processes at a tropical location

The propagation of satellite signals at frequencies above 10 GHz has been studied to investigate the characteristic features of tropical rain. The propagation effects, namely, attenuation, scintillation and depolarization caused by varying structures of rain have been investigated to indicate their interrelationship. The varying relationship between attenuation and scintillations indicates the evolution of turbulence during different types of rain events. Also, the rain-induced depolarization of the signal is related to rain attenuation in different manner during stratiform events, when the melting layer is present, than during convective events when large rain drops are mainly responsible for depolarization in the absence of melting layer.