Achievable Capacity of GEO-ground optical links in the presence of molecular absorption and turbulence

We estimate the capacity of optical links using telecom wavelengths using the existing terrestrial technologies. First, we study the impact of molecular absorption on different modulation systems and compare it with respect to the ultimate achievable capacity. We then investigate the impact of atmospheric turbulence and evaluate the overall gain achieved using current mitigation systems such as adaptive optics as well as data encoding system such as the interleaver. Finally, we conclude by evaluating the achievable capacity using a delayed receiver and an interleaver based system.