Comparison of antenna noise temperature with rain attenuation of a satellite beacon signal at 12 GHz

Simultaneous measurements of antenna noise temperature Ta and satellite beacon attenuation were made to examine the quantitative relation between them, and to determine the `apparent¿ effective medium temperature which provides an accurate estimate of slant-path attenuation. The correlation between the attenuation and the increase in Ta due to rain is very good, and the effective medium temperature derived from the `apparent¿ one is reasonably consistent with a theoretical result.