Summary
International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation
2012
Session Number:4D1
Session:
Number:4D1-2
Bit Error Rate for Satellite Communications in Ka-band under Atmospheric Turbulence Predicted from Radiosonde Data in Japan
Tatsuyuki Hanada, Kiyotaka Fujisaki, Mitsuo Tateiba,
pp.-
Publication Date:2012/10/29
Online ISSN:2188-5079
Summary:
It is known that turbulence in the earth's atmosphere affects propagation characteristics of an electromagnetic wave. The effects degrade the performance on satellite communications, particularly in Ku-band at low elevation angles or the above carrier frequencies. To consider the effects in the design of such satellite communication systems appropriately, some models to predict scintillation due to atmospheric turbulence have been developed for applications up to around 14 GHz. However, since a carrier frequency becomes higher according to the increase in the required channel capacity of a satellite link, a method to analyze the effects of atmospheric turbulence is needed for the higher carrier frequencies. We study the effects of atmospheric turbulence on BER for satellite communications in such high frequencies by the theoretical analysis of the moments of wave fields given on the basis of a multiple scattering method. We have analyzed BER derived from the average received power which is obtained by the second moment of a Gaussian wave beam for satellite communications in Ka-band at low elevation angles. The strength of atmospheric turbulence represented by the refractive index structure constant is needed in the analysis of the moments. However, since the structure constant has dependence of region, season and time, the suitable profile has to be applied for a location of the ground station. Some statistical methods have been reported concerning the estimation of the structure constant from radiosonde data in Europe and the United States. On the other hand, we do not know any studies for the estimation of the structure constant suitable around Japan. In this paper, we predict the structure constant from radiosonde data measured in Fukuoka by applying the above method, and then analyze BER for Ka-band satellite communications. From results, atmospheric turbulence becomes strong in summer and results in the increase in BER.