Normalized Differenzial Spectral Attenuation among co-rotating LEO satellites: Performance analysis for estimating the tropospheric water vapor

NDSA (Normalized Differential Spectral Absorption) is as a differential attenuation measurement method for the estimation of the total content of water vapor (IWV, Integrated Water Vapor) along a tropospheric propagation path between two Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites. The NDSA has been deeply analyzed assuming two counter rotating satellites in Ku and K band for tangent altitudes up to 10 km. In this paper we present the main NDSA measurement characteristics of the CO-rotating configuration with one transmitting satellite and many receiving ones assuming the multi-band (K, Ku and M) approach on each radio link and plausible reference propagation conditions for tangent altitudes up to 15 km.