Measurements of Atmospheric Effects on Satellite Links at Very Low Elevation Angle

• Main Author: Gutteberg,O.
• Other Authors: NORWEGIAN TELECOMMUNICATIONS ADMINISTRATION RESEARCH ESTABLISHMENT KJELLER
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1984
• Subjects: *ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVE PROPAGATION; *RADIO LINKS; *SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS; ATMOSPHERIC ATTENUATION; SCINTILLATION; HIGH ALTITUDE; SPACE DIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS; CROSS POLARIZATION; COMMUNICATION SATELLITES; SIGNAL PROCESSING; NORWAY; POLAR REGIONS; SNOW; RADIO WAVES; OTS(Orbital Test Satellite); Sleet; NATO furnished; Component Reports; Arctic; Norway; Spitzbergen
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADP003887; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADP003887

This paper describes experiments and results obtained from propagation measurements with the Orbital Test Satellite (OTS) at the Arctic islands of Spitzbergen (78 N). The elevation angle of the satellite was 3.2 deg and the frequency 11.8 GHz. The experiments carried out included measurements of atmospheric scintillations, cross-polarisation discrimination and space diversity improvements. The measurements showed that the distributions of the received satellite beacon amplitude can be approximated by Rice-distributions. Large diversity gain was obtained by using horizontal spacing of 1 km. A wideband (TV) transmission experiment was also performed with good result. (Author) This article is from 'Characteristics of the Lower Atmosphere Influencing Radio Wave Propagation: Conference Proceedings Symposium of the Electromagnetic Wave Propagation Panel (33rd) Held at Spatind, Norway on 4-7 October 1983,' AD-A145 046. p5-1-5-12.