Availability Analysis of the Plataforma Solar de Almería for Optical LEO Downlinks

Abstract

Optical free space laser communication shows rapid improvements in satellite data transmission. Especially in Low-Earth Orbit satellite links to optical ground stations, the weather-correlated availability is a crucial limiting factor - Optical satellites downlinks are significantly hindered by cloud blockage. This thesis presents a methodology for analyzing long-term cloud image data for prediction of system performance. That approach, initially applied to Almería in southern Spain, is abstractable and can be adapted to further locations when the appropriate input data and orbital information for LEO satellites is available. The primary objective of the work is to assess Almería as a ground station location for optical downlinks. The study analyzes data to reveal the suitability of this location, owing to its geographical positioning, having advantages in satellite availability when compared to other locations such as Oberpfaffenhofen in Germany. One result indicates that the simulated median clear sky probability over Almería with 65% is higher than when regarding the realistic case with the orbital trajectory information of a satellite employing a laser downlink.