Measured radiometric satellite link attenuation estimation error statistics at 11.2 GHz

Based on two years of simultaneous 11.2 GHz beacon and radiometer observations in Austin, USA, it was determined that the effective medium temperature, T_m, has a normal distribution with a mean of 274 K and a standard deviation of 27 K. Applying this mean T_m, the ratio of dB beacon attenuation to radiometric attenuation was found to be lognormally distributed with a mean of 1.02 and a standard deviation of 0.138 over the 2 to 15 dB radiometer attenuation range. These results are relevant to uplink power control schemes.