Raindrop Size Distribution Model for the Prediction of Rain Attenuation in Durban

The paper is focused on the modeling of raindrop size distribution in Durban, South Africa. The maximum likelihood estimator approach is employed with lognormal distribution to model the dropsize distribution for Durban. The raindrop size is classified into two regimes based on the available data. The goodness-of-fit method (Kolmogrov-Smirnov test (K-test) is then employed to optimize the selected model for different rain rate regime. The results are compared with the existing models such as the work done in West-Africa, Europe and Asia. The proposed South Africa model seems appropriate for the region to estimate rain attenuation both in terrestrial and satellite links.