Optical Ground Stations Group

Credit:

Enno Kapitza

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Signal reception and experimental measurement are carried out with the DLR ground stations in Oberpfaffenhofen. For this purpose, a permanently installed optical ground station (OGS-OP) is available for scientific experiments and measurements, as well as a transportable optical ground station (TOGS) for data reception and technology demonstrations. The Optical Ground Stations research group is therefore concerned with the development of specialised measuring and receiving equipment, as well as with the further development of optical ground stations in general.

Links and more information

Optical Groundstation OGSOP

The Optical Ground Station Oberpfaffenhofen is located on the roof of the institute building and has a telescope to which various electro-optical systems can be directly attached.

Transportable Optical Ground Station TOGS

Transportable Optical Ground Station TOGS The transportable optical ground station is a versatile and modular instrument that can be used for a variety of experimental optical uplink and downlink scenarios, as well as for measuring the atmospheric optical channel.

Video: Optical Ground Station Oberpfaffenhofen OGSOP (engl.)

In the future, laser communication will be an indispensable tool for fast and secure data links to and via satellites and aircraft. Laser links enable enormous data rates, quantum encryption as well as more precise future satellite navigation systems.

Download: Standard Power Vectors for Optical Satellite Downlinks

To ensure comparable results when different parties are simulating the performance of optical ground stations, equal behaviour of the physical channel is required. To enable such, DLR generated several received optical power vectors each with 100s duration and a sampling resolution of 10kS/s. These vectors can be downloaded here from their respective subfolders, in Matlab-format, including their statistical evaluation.