Broadband backhaul communication for stratospheric platforms: the stratospheric optical payload experiment (STROPEX)

Abstract

A high bitrate optical downlink was performed by the stratospheric optical payload experiment (STROPEX), a part of the EU CAPANINA project. The STROPEX objectives were to design and build the necessary hardware to demonstrate an optical backhaul downlink from a stratospheric platform to the ground and to carry out channel measurements on the link. A successful measurement campaign at ESRANGE near Kiruna, Sweden achieved all of these objectives. The transportable optical ground station received an almost error free 1.25 Gbit/s data signal from the payload over a distance of 64.3 km with a bit error rate of better than 10^-9. This paper gives an overview of the stratospheric optical payload experiment, focusing on the airborne free-space experimental laser terminal (FELT). Additionally, the successful measurement campaign is described and the operation of the experiment is outlined.