Prediction of 3 Years of Annual Rain Attenuation Statistics at Ka-Band in French Guiana Using the Numerical Weather Prediction Model WRF

This paper highlights the interest of using an Atmospheric Numerical Simulator (ANS) relying on a high resolution weather forecast model coupled with an ElectroMagnetic Module to compute Ka-band rain attenuation statistics in an equatorial region. An optimization of the parametrization of the Weather Research and Forecasting meteorological model (WRF) is carried out using measurements collected from a propagation experiment carried out by Centre National d'etudes Spatiales and Office National d'etudes et de Recherches Aerospatiales near Kourou in French Guiana. Both simulated and experimental annual Complementary Cumulative Distribution Functions of rain attenuation are presented and compared. An additional comparison to the rain attenuation prediction method of Rec. ITU-R P.618-13 is presented to evaluate the potentialities of the WRF-EMM ANS to produce synthetic propagation statistics in equatorial regions.