Calculation of Electromagnetic Scattering from a Pruppacher-Pitter Raindrop Using M.A.S. and Slant Path Rain AttenuationPrediction

The combined effects of hydrometeor scattering and absorption result in significant power loss, for Earth-space microwave links operating at frequencies above 10GHz. With the increasing deployment of higher frequencies in commercial wireless networks, the accurate estimation of the specific rain attenuation is very significant for the reliable design of a radio communication system. In the present paper, the scattering of a plane electromagnetic wave from a Pruppacher-Pitter raindrop is treated using the Method of Auxiliary Sources (MAS). The obtained data are compared with those taken from the open literature -in the form of real and imaginary part of the forward scattering amplitude - with excellent results. Then, they are used for the numerical calculation of both the specific rain attenuation and the exceedance probability function, in the case of a hypothetical satellite link located in various climatic regions. The comparison with other models against experimental data has given very encouragingresults.