Professor Mandeep Singh
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
USM Engineering Campus
14300 Nibong Tebal, Penang
Malaysia
E-mail: mandeeps75@yahoo.com

Abstract: The possibility of predicting rain attenuation statistics on earth-to-space paths from rainfall rate data has been a common interest in the past years and has expectant an extensive series of theoretical and experimental studies. Rain attenuation is dominant in earth-to-space using frequencies above 10 GHz, reliability of the links depends greatly on the rainfall rate. In order to secure adequate link reliability, it is necessary to weaken the attenuation by establishing two earth stations and diverting the signal waves to the path of least rain attenuation. Attenuation is a linear function proportional to distance in guided media describing the efficiency of a particular guided media. However, this is not the case in unguided media. Generally, attenuation in unguided media increases as the signal frequency increases. It is the interference caused by raindrops on electromagnetic signals traveling through atmosphere. When this phenomenon occurs, the transmission is weakened by absorption and scattering of the signal by raindrops. Therefore, transmissions at frequencies, especially in Ku-band range are extremely susceptible to attenuation due to atmospheric conditions such as rain fade.
Since majority of the studies on earth-to-space propagation have been conducted in temperate regions, the existing prediction models may not be sufficiently accurate to characterize the effects of attenuation on tropical and equatorial climates. This speech aims to increase the available database on earth-to-space propagation at Ku-band.

Brief Biography of the Speaker:
J. S. Mandeep received his B.E. (with honors) and Ph.D. degrees in electrical and electronic engineering from the University of Notrhumbria, UK, in 1998, and Universiti Sains Malaysia in 2006, respectively. Since 2006, he has been affiliated to Universiti Sains Malaysia as a Lecturer. His areas of specialization are radiowave propagation in satellite communication system, radar, antenna design, RF, and microwave. His current research collaboration is with the Association of Radio Industries and Business (ARIB), Japan, to analyze the rain fade at Ku-band in tropical climate using satellite, involving countries such as Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, and Fiji. Mandeep has published 30 papers in journals, most in his special field: radiowave propagation. He has also reviewed more than 30 articles in IEEE and PIERS Journals.