Zonal Beam

A zonal beam is satellite antenna beams designed to cover a region of the Earth’s surface that is smaller than full Earth coverage, typically less than about 40% of the visible Earth. They provide an intermediate coverage option between Earth-coverage beams and narrow spot beams, allowing transmit power and capacity to be concentrated over a defined geographic region.

Large zonal beams covering of the order of 20% of the Earth’s surface are sometimes referred to as hemisphere beams. A zonal beam is commonly used to balance coverage area, antenna complexity, and frequency reuse in satellite communications systems.