Analysis of laser signal measurements from optical satellite downlinks

Bachelor, Master or Diploma Thesis at DLR (German Aerospace Center), Institute of Communications and Navigation, Satellite Networks Group, Optical Communications Group

Duration

6 Months

Start

Immediately

Requirements

• Study of Electrical Engineering, Physics (or similar)
• Basics in Matlab programming
• Interest in optics and free-space optical communications

Short Description

The Optical Communications Group investigates new technologies to improve
performance of free-space optical links between ground stations, aircrafts, satellites, etc.
On the institute buildings roof, the group hosts an optical ground station used for signal
reception during optical satellite downlink experiments. The particular channel behavior
due to atmospheric turbulence causes phase and amplitude distortions of the incident
laser beam. Recently, the ground station was applied for measurements of atmospheric
channel behavior for downlinks from the Japanese low earth orbit satellite OICETS. The
beam was captured with the ground stations telescope and signal quality was measured
with instruments quantifying the amplitude and phase distortions. In the framework of
this thesis, the obtained measurements with the differential image motion monitor
(phase distortion) shall be analyzed and used in order to gain knowledge about the
channel behavior for optical satellite downlinks.

Please contact supervisor for further information.