Scintillation measurements performed during the limited-visibility lasercom experiment

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Abstract
The effects of scintillation on the performance of free-space laser communication (lasercom) systems can be significant. Atmospheric scintillation can introduce burst errors which can be the major contributor to the laser link's overall bit error rate (BER). As part of the limited-visibility lasercom experiment, independent measurements of scintillation were taken to determine how much of the overall lasercom system's performance degradation was due to scintillation as opposed to atmospheric attenuation. The scintillation measurements were also correlated to the suite of meteorological measurements (total attenuation coefficient, total backscatter, temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed and direction) recorded concurrently. Scintillation variation over the time of day was measured. Indications of a reduction of scintillation in conditions of poorer visibility (rain) were observed. All of these measurements will assist in providing more accurate predictions of lasercom performance where these routinely measured meteorological variables are available.

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