Characterization of Cloud Obscured Free Space Optical Channels

摘要

For ground-to-air and air-to-air communications, clouds form a main element of the communication channel. In wireless optical communications, clouds induce temporal and spatial dispersion, causing power loss and bandwidth constraints; critical parameters for reliable communication system design. In this paper, we focus on the temporal dispersion induced by the clouds, and provide a statistical estimate of the available bandwidth for cloud obscured channels based on a two year observation period for the continental United States.