Integrative Analysis of Earth to Space Propagation in the EHF Band

The use of extremely high frequency (EHF) bands for satellite and terrestrial communications has increased because of the large available bandwidth and the potential for high data rates. At the same time, signal propagation in this range is strongly affected by atmospheric absorption and phase dispersion, both of which vary with altitude and weather conditions. Accurate Earth-to-space link-budget estimation therefore requires a propagation model that accounts not only for local attenuation but also for the refracted path through the atmosphere. In this work, Earth-to-space cumulative attenuation is analyzed by combining the real and imaginary parts of atmospheric refractivity along the propagation path. The real part determines the ray geometry, while the imaginary part determines the accumulated loss. The model is evaluated for clear-sky, fog, and rain conditions and for different transmission elevation angles. The results show the strong dependence of cumulative attenuation on frequency, weather conditions, and path geometry across EHF satellite communication bands.