Low elevation angle KU-band satellite measurements at Austin, Texas

At low elevation angles, the propagation of satellite signals is affected by precipitation as well as by inhomogeneties of the refractive index. Whereas precipitation causes fades for relatively small percentages of time, the refractive index variability causes scintillations which can be observed for most of the time. An experiment is now under way in Austin, Texas, in which the right hand circularly polarized 12 GHz beacon of INTELSAT-V/F10 is observed at a 5.8 deg elevation angle, along with the radiometric sky temperature, rainfall rate, humidity, pressure, temperature, and wind speed and direction. The objective of these measurements is to accumulate a database over a period of 2 years and to analyze the probabilities and dynamical behavior of the signal variations in relation to the meteorological parameters. The hardware and software used for the data acquisition and analysis is described and the results from the first year of measurements are presented.