Can Schwarzschildean gravitational fields suppress gravitational waves?

Gravitational waves in the linear approximation propagate in Schwarzschild space-time similarly to electromagnetic waves. A fraction of the radiation scatters off the curvature of the geometry. The energy of the backscattered part of an initially outgoing pulse of the quadrupole gravitational radiation is estimated by compact formulas depending on the initial energy, the Schwarzschild radius, and the location and width of the pulse. The backscatter becomes negligible in the short wavelength regime.