Rain Attenuation Estimation of Vertical and Horizontal Polarizations for Bangabandhu-1 Satellite

The performance of satellite communication is highly affected by environmental factors. One of the detrimental effects of these factors is rain attenuation. From Bangladesh viewpoint, rain is one of the dominant causes for abrupt attenuation incidents. For proper and accurate satellite link planning rain attenuation must be taken into account. We have considered operations scenario for the first Bangladeshi satellite named Bangabandhu-1(BS-I) satellite whose base stations are established at Gazipur and Rangamati. The focus of this paper is to analyse the rain attenuation for vertical and horizontal polarisation of the BS-I satellite. To materialise this, we have considered yearly statistical rainfall data from the Bangladesh Meteorological Department for the last thirty-two years. Using the ITU-R prediction model, rain attenuation is measured for different frequencies from both vertical and horizontal polarisation perspective. Moreover, the comparison between vertical and horizontal polarization is discussed on the standpoint of the BS-I satellite.