Rain-rate duration statistics over a five-year period: a tool for assessing slant path fade durations

A rain gauge network of 10 tipping bucket rain gauges on the Mid-Atlantic coast of the United States has been in continuous operation since June 1, 1986. Rain-rate distributions and estimated slant path fade distributions at 20 and 30 GHz covering the first five-year period have been derived from the gauge network measurements and published data of Goldhirsh, Krichevsky and Gebo (see ibid., vol.40, no.11, p.1408, 1992). In this article, we present rain-rate time duration statistics. The conversion of rain-rate duration statistics derived from in situ measurements to slant path fade duration statistics is complicated because of the vertical and lateral inhomogeneity of the rain. A benchmark set of fade duration statistics at 20 and 30 GHz for a vertical path is derived from the rain-rate duration statistics employing Crane´s (1980) global model. These results may be used by investigators for comparison with and/or conversion to slant path fade duration statistics. Such statistics are important for better assessing optimal coding procedures over defined bandwidths