Optical modeling of a space relay experiment

The optical modeling of laser beam propagation between two points on the earth's surface is discussed with reference to a space relay experiment using relay mirrors on one or more satellites. A two-dimensional laser beam propagation code is applied, and several novel modules are developed to realistically model the environment of the experiment. These are the Kolmogorov atmosphere, a deformable mirror, a segmented aperture, and wind shear. The model allows the calculation of the beam-Strehl ratio and efficiency of the energy transfer for an arbitrary input beam distribution.