Emulating and characterizing strong turbulence conditions for space-to-ground optical links: the PICOLO bench

Abstract. We present a method to develop a turbulence emulation bench for low-Earth-orbit satellite-to-ground optical communication links under strong turbulence. We provide guidelines to characterize the spatio–temporal dynamics of phase disturbances and scintillation produced by the emulator on a laser beam. We implemented such an emulator for a link at 10 deg elevation and discuss here its design method and characterization. The characterization results are compared to numerical simulations, and this characterization results in the validation of a digital twin of the emulator. The emulator will serve as a testing platform for adaptive optics systems and other free-space optical communication components under strong turbulence conditions.