Rain field generators implemented in a european broadcasting satellite system using an on-board reconfigurable antenna

The main objective of the ESA ARTES 5.1 Contract 20887/07/NL/LvH “Verification of Propagation Impairment Mitigation Techniques” with Politecnico di Milano as Prime, ONERA and Space Engineering as subcontractors, was to validate the channel models and related input data appropriate for the design, analysis and/or control phase of Propagation Impairments Mitigation Techniques PIMTs, both for the Broadcasting Satellite Service BSS and the Interactive Multimedia Broadband Service IMMBS. For the BSS scenario, which is the focus of this paper, the On Board Antenna Pattern Reconfiguration OBAPR PIMT is investigated, using as channel models the rain field generators able to provide the spatial distribution of rain across the service area on the basis of large-scale meteorological forecasts. Their performance were tested using either radar data or a large dataset of beacon measurements collected in Europe during the OLYMPUS experiment.