Impact of aircraft boundary layer on laser beam propagation

Abstract

Creating an optical point-to-point link with an aircraft is a challenging issue. This link can be formed in various ways: (a) via a direct link between the earth base and the aircraft, (b) via a direct link between the two aircrafts or (c) via a satellite. Such a link can achieve: high propagation speed of the beam in long distances, high data rate and secure information transmission. The goal is the minimization of the beam wavefront distortion. In this work we study the flow field around an aircraft. The main contributions of our work are: (a) we derive the relation between air properties - e.g. density and pressure - and the refractive index, and then quantify the affect of the flow field on the laser beam, (b) we introduce a framework that can be applied in any flying object and any kind of flow, (c) using this framework we are able to describe and quantify the aberration of the wavefront. Via extensive simulations we examine the distortion of the wavefront with regards to various parameters. We believe that our findings can form the basis for better telecommunication results.