Extended Communication Path Length Scintillation Measurements And Model: A Discussion Of Results

Robert J. Feldmann

doi:10.1117/12.960858

11 October 1989 Extended Communication Path Length Scintillation Measurements And Model: A Discussion Of Results

Robert J. Feldmann

Proceedings Volume 1115, Propagation Engineering; (1989) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.960858
Event: SPIE 1989 Technical Symposium on Aerospace Sensing, 1989, Orlando, FL, United States

Abstract

Successful design of an atmospheric laser communications terminal requires an understanding of atmospheric turbulence induced scintillation of the optical signal. Laser beam scintillation is small scale interference within the beam cross section due to turbulence induced fluctuations of the refractive index of the atmosphere, causing variations in the spatial power density at the receiver. The variations in the spatial power density at the receiver manifest themselves as fades and surges of the detected optical signal. By understanding the statistics and power spectrum of the fades and surges, communication terminals can be designed to achieve needed levels of performance by employing optimized choices of increased link margin and error coding. As part of the HAVE LACE (Laser Airborne Communications Experiment) program, amplitude scintillation data was collected and analyzed for extended propagation path lengths. The analysis included the determination of the statistics and temporal power spectrum of the scintillation and the effect on communications performance. Since the HAVE LACE terminals used direct detection of pulsed laser energy, the random variations in the received signal strength was used to evaluate only the atmospheric turbulence induced amplitude scintillations. The collected data has been reduced and compared with a model for extended path length channels. The objective of this comparison was to verify the performance of the model against the collected data. The results from the comparison show a reasonable degree of correlation between the data and the model which warrants further investigation of this approach. This analysis is presented in a form which is consistent with an understanding of the implications of the effect of the communications channel on system performance.

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Robert J. Feldmann "Extended Communication Path Length Scintillation Measurements And Model: A Discussion Of Results", Proc. SPIE 1115, Propagation Engineering, (11 October 1989); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.960858

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KEYWORDS

Scintillation

Turbulence

Data modeling

Atmospheric propagation

Atmospheric modeling

Laser communications

Atmospheric optics

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