ATMOSPHERIC ATTENUATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCE IN AERONAUTICAL MOBILE SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS (MSC).

This paper describes the effects of atmospheric attenuation and environmental influence as very important particulars for aeronautical Mobile Satellite Communications (MSC), because such factors generally tend to impair the performance of satellite links, although signal enhancements are also occasionally observed. As a radio frequency (RF) signal radiates through an Earth-to-sky communication link, its quality degrades as it propagates through the satellite link caused by the atmospheric attenuation, special propagation effects, environmental influence and many other interference considerations in space. This degradation significantly affects satellite transmission links, particularly the extent of degradation depends on the link, atmosphere, transmitted signal and receiver antenna parameters. The specific effects of clear sky, transionospheric propagation and path depolarization causes are examined and explained, focusing on important propagation characteristics in aeronautical MSC, reflection, fading, interference from adjacent satellite systems and specific local environmental influence caused by aircraft onboard superstructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]