Investigation of atmospheric instability for communication experiments with the ESA's geostationary satellite ARTEMIS

Abstract

The investigations of the atmospheric turbulence instability are carried out. The observations of different stars and different positions of stars in the sky performed with the AZT-2 telescope (diameter of 0.7 m) of the Main Astronomical Observatory, Kyiv, Ukraine, and at the Optical Ground Station (the 1.0-m telescope) of ESA at Canary Islands are described. Short exposures (40 ms) with CCD cameras in focal plane of objectives with the filters were used. The calculations of middle positions of star images were performed. The deviation of star’s image positions from the middle position was also performed. The atmospheric attenuation and FWHM (Full Width Half Maximum) function were calculated using the MIDAS/ROMAFOT software package. The results of analyses of experimental data obtained due to observations in different regions are also presented.