Performance Model Simulation of Ganymede Laser Altimeter (GALA) for the JUICE Mission

Abstract

In order to clarify the requirement on the interface conditions between modules of GALA, we developed the performance model of GALA based on the model of BELA (Bepi-Colombo Laser Altimeter). The performance model quantifies the link budget, range accuracy, albedo measurement accuracy, and probability of false detection (PFD). In the performance model, background noise from scattered sunlight from the Ganymede surface, surface and bulk dark currents of APD, noise floor of APD-TIA, shot noise, and speckle noise are taken into consideration. Black-body emission from the Ganymede surface is also taken into account while its influence to SNR is negligible compared with other noises. EMI noise shall be included after the evaluation of the verification model.