RESUMEN
Optical technologies are extremely competitive candidates to achieve very-high throughput links between ground and GEO satellites; however, their feasibility relies on the ability to mitigate channel impairments due to atmospheric turbulence. For that purpose, Adaptive Optics (AO) has already proved to be highly efficient on the downlink. However, for the uplink, anisoplanatism induced by point-ahead angle (PAA) compromises AO pre-compensation efficiency to an extent that depends on propagation conditions. The ability to properly assess the anisoplanatism impact in a wide variety of conditions is thus critical in designing the optical ground terminals. In this paper, we demonstrate the consistency of experimental coupled flux statistics with results coming from performance and end-to-end models, on an AO pre-compensated 13 km slant path in Tenerife. This validation is demonstrated in a wide variety of turbulence conditions, hence consolidating propagation channel models that are of critical importance for the reliability of future GEO feeder links. We then compare experimental results to theoretical on-sky performance, and discuss to what extent such slant path or horizontal path experiments can be representative of real GEO links.
RESUMEN
More and more, hyperspectral images are envisaged to improve the aerial reconnaissance capability of airborne systems, both for civilian and military applications. To confirm the hopes put in this new way of imaging a scene, it is necessary to develop airborne systems allowing the measurement of the spectral signatures of objects of interest in real conditions, with high spectral and spatial resolutions. The purpose of this paper is to present the design and the first in-flight results of the dual-band infrared spectro-imaging system called Sieleters. This system has demonstrated simultaneously a ground sampling distance of 0.5m, associated with a spectral resolution of 11 cm(-1) for the Mid-Wave InfraRed (MWIR) and 5 cm(-1) for the Long-Wave InfraRed (LWIR).