Florian Quatresooz, Jack Prezerowitz, Claude Oestges
Free-space optical communications (FSOC) between ground and satellites are limited by cloud cover and atmospheric turbulence. In order to establish optimal locations for future optical ground stations by quantifying atmospheric impacts, several measurement campaigns are ongoing. This work presents measurements of cloud cover and optical turbulence collected in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, from August 2024 to July 2025 (1 year). The measurements are compared with estimations from the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) software, highlighting the interest of numerical weather prediction simulations to derive accurate statistics for assessing the viability of FSOC at a given location. The benefit of adaptive optics correction for optimizing single-mode fiber coupling in simulated GEO satellite downlinks in Louvain-la-Neuve is also demonstrated, showing that, in the studied scenario, link availability is primarily limited by cloud cover.