Calculations of XPD Spread for 20 GHz Fixed Satellite Systems using 2-D Video Disdrometer Data

Individual drop images in natural rain from the 2-dimensional video disdrometer have been processed to obtain their shapes and orientation angles, which in turn have been used to derive their complex forward scattering amplitudes at 19.701 GHz. Using these calculations, the XPA versus co-polar attenuation variation has been derived for a simulated experimental link. The variation is compared with 1-year of beacon data and shown to give rise to significantly higher XPD spread than the previous computations which used mean shapes and orientation models for the measured drop sizes.