Study on Satellite-to-ground Laser Communications with Existence of Atmosphere

Abstract

The laser beam used to establish a communication channel between satellite and ground segments has a small divergence angle and a tiny spot on the Earth’s surface, which may lead to the fail of the system. So it’s important to study the deflection of laser beam by the Earth’s atmosphere and find a way to calibrate this error. Both theoretical analysis and real data processing method are used to obtain the mathematical model for divergence angle of laser communication beam and its correction function. Then the model has been applied to the data, which was used to describe the atmosphere state by traditional ground segments to obtain the critical elevation angle. According to the results of calculation, our conclusion will be that the correction should be done when the critical elevation happens.