Theoretical model for a cloudy-channel laser communications experiment

The authors presents a simplified system model for an experiment to collect the optical channel characterization data for high data rate ground to low-Earth-orbit optical communications system through clouds. The experiment consists of a 1550-nm ground-to-space shuttle uplink and a round-trip link where the signal photons are transmitted up to the space shuttle and back down to the ground. The system is designed to operate with thin to intermediate thickness clouds in the communications channel. The results of calculated link margins and system requirements are presented.