Rain attenuation successive fade durations and time intervals between fades in a satellite-Earth link

Long-term attenuation data at 11.6 GHz, obtained in a Sirio link, are analysed to provide information on the joint statistics between successive fade durations within a rain event (intrafade) and between different rain events (interfade). The results show that successive fade durations and the interfade or intrafade intervals are approximately statistically independent. Within the same rain event, interfades and fade durations longer than 10 s are statistically identical. These data may be important for planning adaptive systems and for devising prediction models of the dynamic behaviour of rain attenuation.