Rain Attenuation on Short Radio Paths: Theory, Experiment, and Design

The outage time on short radio paths at frequencies above 10 GHz can be estimated from distributions of point rain rates derived from U. S. Weather Service rain gauge charts. In this paper, a previous theory is extended to include the effects of path length and frequency. Experimental corroboration is presented for three locations on the east coast of the United States, and the design of short radio paths is illustrated by examples. One-minute rain rate distributions for 20 locations are also included.