The study investigate the contribution of low clouds,
to signal fade rate, at Ka band in the satellite communication
links on earth-space path(s) to NigComSat 2, from three tropical
locations in West Africa. Extracted cloud cover statistical data
such as average cloud amount, average base height, and
frequency of occurrence, were used to obtain the monthly
variations and seasonal variations for Lagos (6.55o, 3.35o),
Bouake (7.73o, -5.07o) and Bamako (12.53o, -7.95o). Cloud
attenuation statistics were computed for each of the three stations
for their respective uplink and downlink. The uplink and
downlink attenuation ranges between about 0.2 to 1.6 dB and 0.1
to 0.8 dB respectively for Lagos; for Bouake between 0.005 to
0.035 dB and 0.003 to 0.016 dB respectively; finally, for Bamako
between about 0.2 to 2 dB and about 0.1 to 1 dB respectively. The
stations downlink attenuation sets of values are generally about
twice their corresponding uplink attenuation values