Use of meteorological radar images to build a rain attenuation prediction model for terrestrial microwave radiocommunication

Presents an approach to establish a rain attenuation prediction model applicable to microwave communication systems, based on data from meteorological radar measurements. Classical prediction models are based on rain data coming from raingages and on some assumptions for the shape and movements of raincells (rainrate distribution in space and time). The authors propose instead to use data from meteorological radar installations. Those data will permit to decrease the uncertainty related to assumptions for the movement and the rainrate distribution of raincells. Furthermore, the number of rain radar samples usable for that study is far greater than the number of samples coming from raingage networks, so that the prediction model´s precision will be improved by a large factor