Combined Effects of Atmospheric Propagation on link Availability of Non-Geostationary Satellite at K a-Band in Arid Climate

Earth to space links are affected by several atmospheric impairments which may have different degrees of correlation or statistical dependence. For non-Geostationary Satellite Orbit (Go) links operating at K a-band in the arid climate of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Ks), it is found that attenuation due to rain is the dominant source of propagation impairment (about 78% at 80 elevation and 0.01% time is exceeded). The effect of dust contributes the minimum source (less than 0.2%). However, the contribution of all other sources other than rain can not be neglected (about 32%). (author)