Analysis of atmosphere channel for space-to-ground optical communications

Since atmosphere deeply influences the beams propagated in space-to-ground optical communications, it is important to study its effects on the beam transmission in the atmospheric channel. In this paper, we analyze the impacts of atmospheric channel with the theory of free space optical communication. First, we investigate the atmospheric attenuation of different beams through the mathematical models. Then, we analyze the effects of atmospheric turbulence on the signal transmission by the atmospheric refractive index structure constant. In addition, we simulate the atmospheric transmittance with different zenith angles, beams, heights and rainfall. The results show that the wavelength, atmospheric turbulence, zenith angle, height and rainfall have important impacts on the signal transmission of space-to-ground optical communications. This demonstrates much theoretical significance on the wavelength selection, height settings of the optical ground station as well as angle selection of transmitter.