The Brazilian Amazon is a very large equatorial region, covered by a dense jungle and located in the North of Brazil. Its political and strategic importance is nationally recognized. Consequently, wireless communications play a fundamental role under the point of view of its development, support to its inhabitants and state security. In this context, the main motivation for the work described in this dissertation was the possibility of contributing to the progress of the Amazon region. Nowadays, the use of frequencies above 10 GHz is growing fast, not only as a solution to overcome the problem of spectrum congestion, but also to increase the capacity of telecommunications systems. Unfortunately, these frequencies are strongly affected by precipitation. Once the equatorial climate is characterized by heavy rain, a radiometeorological study in the Amazon region seems to be essential for acquiring the information needed to improve the project criteria and the performance analysis of communication systems in this area. The first step in the investigation reported here was a study about the climate of the Amazon region. Köppen classification was adopted because its structure depends on temperature, precipitation and vegetation, factors that can be related to the statistical distribution of rain in a given area. According to this classification, the climate in the Amazon region is a tropical rainy (A), where 3 subtypes can be identified: Rainy equatorial (Af); Monsoon tropical (Am); Wet-and-dry tropical (Aw). The rainfall characteristics analysis was carried out with data from a pluviograph network covering the region of interest and consisting of 9 (nine) rain gauges. Tipping bucket rain gauges were used, in which, each tip corresponds to 0.1mm rainfall, the integration time being one minute and measuring a maximum precipitation rate of 240 mm/h. Complementary radar data from the SIPAM (Amazon system protection) network were also taken into account in this research. Radars operate in the frequency of 2.8 GHz (S-band), with 4.3m parabolic antennas and a maximum coverage of 400km. Based on precipitation measurements carried out for a period of one year (June 2004 to May 2005), a detailed study of rainfall rate distribution was developed. Both annual and monthly cumulative distributions were derived. Three mathematical models available in the literature for predicting the cumulative distribution of rainfall rate were compared and tested against the experimental data available. The Salonen-Baptista (S-B) was taken as reference in this dissertation. The reason for choosing this model was its global coverage and its dependence on meteorological parameters available in the region under study, allowing to be continuously extended over a large area. Additionally, this model is the basis of ITU-R Recommendation P.837-4. On the other hand, as radar measurements are of paramount importance in the analysis of the spatial structure of rain, based on the classical relation Z(mm6/m3) = a[R(mm/h)]b the conversion between radar reflectivity (Z) and rainfall rate (R) were carefully investigated. The experimental data from rain gauge and radar networks have allowed the examination of different questions: a) Dynamic behaviour of the rainfall rate; b) Horizontal and vertical distribution of rain; c) Correlation of rainfall rate measured in two points separated by a given distance. In each case, the use of the final results to the analysis of problems related to telecommunication systems was pointed out. Due to its relevance in the Amazon region, the application to satellite communications was emphasized.