Assessing Free-Space Optical Communications Through 4D Weather Cubes

Abstract

This study investigates use of a novel data aggregation and interrogation tool, 4D Weather Cubes, and High Performance Computing (HPC)to further enlighten the ongoing debate regarding the potential for terrestrial free space optical (FSO)communications and benefits that might accrue on implementation of hybrid FSO architectures with a millimeter wave backup link. The 4D Weather Cubes were originally developed to accurately assess Directed Energy weapons and sensor performance (at any wavelength/frequency or spectral band)in the absence of field test and employment data. 4D Weather Cubes are the product of efficient processing of large, computationally intensive, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)gridded numerical weather prediction (NWP)data coupled to the verified and validated Laser Environmental Effects Definition and Reference (LEEDR)atmospheric characterization and radiative transfer code. The 4D Weather Cubes, inclusive of both conventional meteorological parameters, as well as optical features such as atmospheric transmission and turbulence, initialized the High Energy Laser End to End Operational Simulation (HELEEOS)propagation code. HELEEOS provided an additional tier of aggregation through development of comparative percentile performance binning of FSO communication bit error rates as a function of wide-ranging azimuth/elevation, earth-to-space uplinks. The aggregated, comparative bit error rate binning analyses for different regions, times of day and seasons are relevant to point-to-point as well as evolving multi-layer wireless network concepts.