Scintillation model of laser beam propagation in satellite-to-ground bidirectional atmospheric channels

Abstract

This paper discusses a scintillation model of laser beam propagation in satellite-to-ground bidirectional atmospheric channels. The frequency characteristics of the downlink were theoretically derived on the basis of measurements in low Earth orbit satellite-to-ground laser communication experiments. The speckle patterns were averaged and the frequency response of the received optical signal was filtered by a telescope aperture. The model parameters were obtained by fitting the results to the model. This paper introduces scaling factors for the uplink and extends the theory for the downlink to that for the uplink. The proposed model can generate time-varying optical signals based on the von Kármán spectrum for space-to-ground laser links. The scintillation index was estimated using the modified Hufnagel–Valley model, which was obtained from real measurements. The probability density function was fitted by the estimated scintillation index and compared to the gamma–gamma distribution under strong turbulence conditions. The scaling factor for the root mean square wind speed was newly introduced to fit the frequency spectra for the uplink. The simulation results are presented in this paper. The proposed scintillation model can contribute to improving the fading simulation of satellite-to-ground communication links as well as add to the future discussion of standards, like those proposed by the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems.