Abstract
The increasing need for high data return from near-Earth and deep-space missions is driving a demand for the establishment of Earth-space optical communication links. These links will require a nearly obstruction-free path to the communication platform, so there is a need to measure spatial and temporal statistics of clouds at potential ground-station sites. A technique is described that uses a ground-based thermal infrared imager to provide continuous day-night cloud detection and classification according to the cloud optical depth and potential communication channel attenuation. The benefit of retrieving cloud optical depth and corresponding attenuation is illustrated through measurements that identify cloudy times when optical communication may still be possible through thin clouds.
Highlights
The increasing demand for high-data-rate communication is generating interest in Earth-space optical links as an alternative or extension to radio-based links [1]
deep-space missions is driving a demand for the establishment of Earthspace optical communication links
provide continuous day-night cloud detection and classification according to the cloud optical depth
Summary
The increasing demand for high-data-rate communication is generating interest in Earth-space optical links as an alternative or extension to radio-based links [1]. The need to characterize clouds at optical communication ground sites with small, low-cost instruments led us to collaboratively develop a second-generation Infrared Cloud Imager (ICI2) system for continuous ground-based measurements of cloud cover statistics. The ICI2 systems use enhanced data processing algorithms for classifying the detected clouds quantitatively according to their optical depth (OD) and corresponding attenuation for a potential Earth-space optical communication channel. The link availability to a particular optical communication platform can be improved through the use of carefully selected multiple ground stations, or site diversity [1] The selection of these sites requires knowledge of the localized long-term cloud cover with high temporal and spatial resolutions to enable calculation of site-diversity statistics and/or network availability. Data are shown that identify times when optical communication is likely possible through thin clouds, thereby illustrating the utility of the enhanced ICI2 cloud characterization capabilities relative to traditional cloud-presence detection
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