Effect of non-Gaussian deformation on pointing error in inter-satellite laser communication systems

This paper proposes a model of non-Gaussian deformation in inter-satellite laser communication system, and then studies the effect of non-Gaussian deformation on pointing error based on the model in comparison with Gaussian model. Theoretical analyses and numerical simulations show that, pointing error will increase with increasing the scale of deformation, and as the distance from deformation to the center of the optical antenna increases, the pointing error will first increase and then decrease for both Gaussian and non-Gaussian models. If and only if the deformation can be well approximated by its root mean square value, the pointing error can change periodically with the variation in the depth of the deformation and the envelope of the peak value of the fluctuation depends on the original pattern of the deformation. According to the numerical results, for the reflection-type optical antenna with a diameter of 0.25 m and an obscuration ratio of 0.1, pointing error will appear if the scale of deformation is bigger than 0.01 m×0.01 m.