An Experimental Study on the Reflection Characteristics of Laser Echo Light Waves

When optical signals are transmitted in the atmosphere, they will be affected by atmospheric turbulence, causing phenomena such as light intensity flickering and light spot drift, resulting in signal intensity attenuation. In this paper, a 0.8 km and a 4 km corner reflector array experimental return link were built. Under different weather conditions, the experiment obtained light intensity data samples and echo spot video data. It analyzed the light intensity flicker and spot drift characteristics and laws of Gaussian beams under different weather conditions. The results show that the turbulence intensity increases with an increase in link distance. At the same time, the atmospheric refractive index structure constant gradually decreases in the order of sunny, light rain, moderate rain, heavy rain, and cloudy. The light intensity distribution of the 0.8 km link is weakly undulating, and the light intensity distribution of the 4 km link is moderately undulating. The distribution of the centroid range of the light spot also decreases in the order of sunny days, light rain days, moderate rain days, heavy rain days, and cloudy days, and as the link distance increases, the distribution range of the centroid of the light spot under the same weather conditions also increases. Studying the reflection characteristics of laser echoes is of great significance to wireless optical communication systems. It brings important technological breakthroughs to large-scale, high-speed wireless optical communication technology and plays an important role in the development of wireless optical communication technology.