Rec. ITU-R P.

839-3

RECOMMENDATION ITU-R P.839-3 Rain height model for prediction methods

(Question ITU-R 201/3) (1992-1997-1999-2001)

The ITU Radiocommunication Assembly, considering a) that information is required regarding the height to which rain extends during periods of precipitation, recommends 1 that for areas of the world where no specific information is available, the mean 0 C isotherm height above mean sea level, h0, be obtained from the data file ESA0HEIGHT.TXT (the data file may be obtained from the ITU Radiocommunication Bureau (BR)); 2 as: that the mean rain height above mean sea level, hR, may be obtained from the 0 C isotherm

hR = h0 + 0.36 km

that for easy reference, values can be taken from Fig 1.

NOTE 1 The data file ESA0HEIGHT.TXT contains the 0 C isotherm height above mean sea level (km) with a resolution of 1.5 in both latitude and longitude. The companion data files ESALAT.TXT and ESALON.TXT contain respectively the latitudes and longitudes of the corresponding entries (gridpoints) in data file ESA0HEIGHT.TXT. The data are from 0 to 360 in longitude and from +90 to 90 in latitude. For a location different from the gridpoints, the 0 C isotherm height above mean sea level at the desired location can be derived by performing a bilinear interpolation on the values at the four closest gridpoints. The data files can be obtained from the BR.

FIGURE 1 Yearly average 0 C isotherm height above mean sea level (km)

1 1 11 1 1 1 1 1 3 3 3 3 4.5 3 3 4.5 3 3 1 3 1 1 11 1 3 1 3 1 1 1

80

60

1 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 4.5 31 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 1 4.5 3 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3
100 50 0 Longitude (degrees) 50 100

1 3 3 3

1 1

40

3 3 3 1 3 3 3 4.5

3 4.5

4.5

20

Latitude (degrees)

Rec. ITU-R P.839-3

20

4.5 3

3 3 3 3 1

4.5

4.5 3

4.5 3

40

1 1 1 1 3 1 1 3 1 3
150 0839-01

60

80

150