Link Budget Analysis with Laser Energy for Time Transfer Using the Ajisai Satellite

Abstract

Two-way Laser Time Transfer (TLTT) using the Ajisai satellite has been considered as a more accurate and stable time transfer technique than existing methods; TLTT requires the kHz laser pulses to decrease the systematic restrictions for TLTT realization. However, because of the low energy of the kHz laser pulses as well as the low cross section due to the small size of the Ajisai reflecting mirror, the link budget is an important issue to establish the TLTT link between two ground stations. In this study, the TLTT link budget is investigated to find the optimal laser pulse energy via analysis of geometric effects using 30 days of orbital data of the Ajisai satellite from 29 March 2021 within a ground network consisting of four stations located in three countries. The geometric configuration reduces the TLTT link budget by three orders of magnitude due to free space loss, atmospheric transmission, and effective cross section; then, the pulse energy is required to be much higher than laser ranging to the Ajisai satellite. It is shown from the simulation that a few tens of mJ level of pulse energy at the transmitting station is quite enough for TLTT realization.