Studying the optical attenuation through falling snow

Our presence and reliance on the Arctic is increasing, and with it the need for telecommunications infrastructures. In search and rescue scenarios access to date is vital, and optical communication offers the possibility to transmit a lot more data than can be done using radio waves. The same applies for polar orbiting satellites, where we use bases near the poles to downlink their data more often than we could do at the equator. This poses a challenge with respect to the Arctic weather, and then especially how snow effects the optical beam. In our project we want to conduct field experiments to measure exactly how different laser beams are effected by the snow to propose models and mitigations that can be used in the future to improve optical links. Furthermore, we want to use the same data and compare it to meteorological data measured simultaneously to see if we can measure the snow properties with the lasers, which in future can be used to improve meteorological measurements and forecasts.

Project leader UiT: Pål Gunnar Ellingsen
Project period: 2026 - 2029
Funded by: European Office of Aerospace Research and Development, US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)
Partners: UNIS