Linkbudget Evaluation

Satellite Link Budget Evaluation

The following table lists the satellites included in the link budget evaluation up to now, along with their height, backscattering cross section and the ''Lageos normalized'' return signal strength. This list is intended to give the observers a feedback of what signal strength can be expected for the different satellites. Feel free to give any comments and questions concerning the given parameters and results.

Satellite Type Height [km] Backscattering Cross Section [1E6 m^2] Signal Strength [Lageos normalized]

Starlette
 950 0.651.5e+02

Lageos
 6000 7.001.0e+00

Etalon
 1900060.008.5e-02

Topex
 1300 2.001.3e+02

BeaconC
 940 3.608.5e+02

Ajisai
 140012.005.8e+02

Gfo-1
 800 2.009.0e+02

Stella
 950 0.651.5e+02

Jason
 1300 0.301.9e+01

GPS
 2000040.004.6e-02

Champ
 500 1.805.3e+03

Westpac
 835 0.031.1e+01

ERS
 800 0.301.4e+02

Glonass
 20000360.004.2e-01

Envisat
 800 0.301.4e+02

LRE
 25000 1.255.9e-04

SUNSAT
 600 0.202.9e+02

Satellite Link Budget Evaluation for userdefined satellite and system parameters

The following form enables for calculating the absulute return signal strength in terms of photoelectrons with respect to various system, atmospheric and satellite parameters. For a detailed explanation of the algorithm and the involved parameters see this documentation.

Cirrus Cloud Transmission [] : [0.1,...,1]
Atmospheric Transmission [] : [0.01,...,0.2]
Longterm Beam Spread [1E-6 rad] : [5,...,50]*1E-6 rad
Shortterm Beam Spread [1E-6 rad] : [20,...,200]*1E-6 rad
Receive Efficiency [] : [0.3,...,1.0]
Satellite Backscattering Cross Section [1E6 m^2] : [0.65,...,7.0]*1E6 m^2
Quantum Efficiency [%] : [0.1%,...,50%]
Receive Aperture [m^2] : [0.13,...,1.8] m^2
Satellite Height [km] : [300,...,20000] km
Wavelength [1E-6 m] : [0.44,0.532,0.88,1.064,1.55]*1E-6m
Transmit Efficiency [] : [0.3,...,1.0]
Pulse Energy [mJ] : [30mJ,...,200mJ]