Overview of the atmospheric visibility monitoring (AVM) program

The objective of the Atmospheric VIsibility Monitoring (AVM) program at the JPL is to obtain atmospheric transmission statistics data to support free-space optical communications experiments and missions. Atmospheric transmission data is collected through a set of three autonomous systems, all located in the south-western US, that observe the stars throughout the year. Data from the three sites are collected and processed on a regular basis to obtain cumulative distribution functions of atmospheric attenuation at different spectral regions. These data will be used to determine site diversity information. In addition, work is underway to build a database of atmospheric transmission data collected by the AVM program and to upgrade the AVM systems to obtain improved data at the important 1.06 micrometers wavelength.