Observation and analysis of aero-optic effects on the ORCA laser communication system

David T. Wayne; Ronald L. Phillips; Larry C. Andrews; Troy Leclerc; Paul Sauer

doi:10.1117/12.887057

25 May 2011 Observation and analysis of aero-optic effects on the ORCA laser communication system

David T. Wayne, Ronald L. Phillips, Larry C. Andrews, Troy Leclerc, Paul Sauer

Proceedings Volume 8038, Atmospheric Propagation VIII; 80380A (2011) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.887057
Event: SPIE Defense, Security, and Sensing, 2011, Orlando, Florida, United States

Abstract

In this paper we show evidence of aero-optic effects on the measured beacon beam as the gimbal angle of a nosemounted turret changes from 0 to 90 degrees and greater with respect to the line of flight. Data from the beacon beam was collected with a new technology 3-aperture scintillometer over a 82km to 104km air-to-ground downlink during field testing of the ORCA system in Nevada in May 2009. In this paper we present data analysis on the impact of an aero-optic boundary layer on a laser link between an aircraft and a ground-based stationary node. Particularly we look at the impact of an aero-optic boundary layer on the mean, variance, scintillation, probability density function (PDF), power spectral density (PSD), and fading of the received irradiance. We find that the most compelling argument for the presence of strong aero-optic effects comes from calculating the PSD of the received beacon intensity. We also find the cumulative effect of the aero-optic boundary layer differs depending on the transmitted beam parameters, i.e. collimated or divergent.

Citation Download Citation

David T. Wayne, Ronald L. Phillips, Larry C. Andrews, Troy Leclerc, and Paul Sauer "Observation and analysis of aero-optic effects on the ORCA laser communication system", Proc. SPIE 8038, Atmospheric Propagation VIII, 80380A (25 May 2011); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.887057

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