Uplink frequency is different from downlink frequency for following reason:

The satellite transmitter generates a signal that would jam its own receiver; if both
uplink and downlink shared the same frequency.
Trying to receive and transmit an amplified version of the same uplink waveform at
same satellite will cause unwanted feedback or ring around from the downlink antenna
back into the receiver.
Frequency band separation allows the same antenna to be used for both receiving and
transmitting, simplifying the satellite hardware.
To overcome the above-mention difficulties satellite repeaters must involve some
form of frequency translation before power amplification. So, Uplink frequency is
different from downlink frequency.
Uplink frequency is kept higher than Downlink frequency for the following
reasons:
At higher frequency attenuation is more hence more power will be required for signal
transmission to ensure that it reaches the destination with the required minimum
power. Higher power requirements involve the use of high power amplifiers with high
ratings and heat sinks. This will increase the weight and power supply ratings will not
make any difference. However for the satellite this will result in higher power
consumption, which results in avoidable inefficiency.
The earth station antenna must direct the beam towards the satellite with as little spill
over as possible i.e. the antenna must have high directivity. Beam width (measure if
directional property) of the antenna is directly proportional to wavelength. Higher
frequency means lesser wavelength and hence lower beam width, which implies
greater directivity.
Why do low frequency signals attenuate slowly as compared to a high frequency
signal?
Sound waves in atmosphere, water, or any other material are pressure or longitudinal
waves. The reason high frequency waves have greater attenuation than low frequency
waves is due to viscosity. The high pressure portion of the wave compresses the
medium creating heating. This radiates energy and reduces the amplitude of the wave.
Low frequency waves have longer wavelengths and their peaks have lower pressure
than high frequency waves. Consequently they lose less energy with distance.
Radio frequency (RF) waves in a vacuum do not attenuate. However they disperse at
different rates from a fixed antenna size in proportion to l/d where l is the wavelength
and d is the diameter of the antenna dish or length of a whip antenna.
RF through Earth’s atmosphere is another story. Typically high frequency RF has
greater attenuation as a result of water or oxygen molecules in the air. Here is a graph
of atmospheric attenuation:
Electromagnetic waves are absorbed in the atmosphere according to
wavelength. Two compounds are responsible for the majority of
signal absorption: oxygen (O2) and water vapor (H2O).
The first peak occurs at 22 GHz due to water, and the second at 63 GHz due to oxygen. The
actual amount of water vapor and oxygen in the atmosphere normally declines with an
increase in altitude because of the decrease in pressure, so these graphs apply from sea level
to around 1 km altitude.
Total attenuation through the atmosphere at any frequency through unobstructed atmosphere
is the sum of free space path loss, attenuation caused by oxygen absorption and attenuation
caused by water vapor absorption. Rain attenuation, when present adds an additional element.
So, AttenTotal = AttenFreeSpacePathLoss + AttenOxygen + AttenWaterVapor + AttenRain

Why are sound waves with higher frequency attenuated more than lower
frequency (as in ultrasound imaging)?
There are a number of reasons, but to really understand why higher frequencies are
attenuated more strongly, you must first understand the different mechanisms that
cause sound attenuation. There are five major sources of acoustic loss in a medium
like the human body: viscosity, heat conduction, relaxation, discontinuous medium
(ballistic losses), and scattering. All of these will become more pronounced for high
frequencies.
Viscosity is fairly straightforward, sound causes small motions of the particles, and
those motions are counteracted by the viscosity of the medium, which converts that
motion to heat. Because higher frequencies lead to larger velocities at a given pressure
level, this causes the losses to increase.
Heat conduction losses work on the principle that an increase in pressure causes an
increase in temperature. For this reason, a moving acoustic wave is accompanied by a
coincident temperature wave. Because higher frequencies have shorter wavelengths,
this means that the high temperature part of the wave is closer to the low temperature
portion of the wave. This allows heat transport from one point in the wave to the
other, which reduces the amount of propagating energy in the wave.
The next is chemical relaxation time. This is a little harder to describe, but it's
basically the time that the material takes to respond to a change in equilibrium.
Because high frequencies require more rapid changes from the material, they can run
into the relaxation time of the medium that cause problems.
The next is discontinuous medium losses. Acoustic waves work best when there are a
lot of particles within a wavelength. Shorter wavelengths mean fewer particles per
wavelength. For low pressures (like in space), this means that high frequency waves
do not transmit pressure as well. This, however, is more of an issue for space than for
human bodies.
The next is scattering. If you have an in-homogenous medium with little particles,
then sound impinging on the particles can reflect off in random directions. The larger
the particles are with respect to a wavelength, the more intense this scattering
becomes. Once again, shorter wavelength means greater attenuation.
I know this is a lot of info, but the main takeaway is that all of the sources of
attenuation act on specific length scales, and the shorter the waves are with respect to
those wavelengths, the more intense the attenuation becomes.

 The uplink frequency is the frequency which is used for transmission of signals from
earth station transmitter to the satellite and downlink frequency is the frequency which is
used for transmission of signals from the satellite to the earth station receiver.