Average bit error rate for satellite downlink communications in Ka-band under atmospheric turbulence given by Gaussian model

We study the influence of atmospheric turbulence on satellite communications by the theoretical analysis of propagation characteristics of electromagnetic waves through inhomogeneous random media. We analyze the average bit error rate (BER) for the geostationary earth orbit satellite downlink communications in Ka-band under atmospheric turbulence whose statistical characteristics are given by the Gaussian model. The average BER is deduced by the probability density function of the received intensity, which function is obtained by the moments of the received intensity. From the analysis, we find that the variance of received intensity caused by wave form distortion results in the degradation in BER performance at low elevation angles.