A Portable Ambient Optical Noise Measurement Station

Optical background radiation measurement to characterize the optical noises is essential because the ambient light can be a degradation and limiting factor of classical and quantum free-space optical communication. A measurement setup for ambient optical noise measurement was designed and developed, and it is realized in a protective housing. The measurement unit is equipped with a camera with the same orientation as the detectors and takes photos of the sky. The optical power measurement was performed at different locations and different wavelength ranges, including 1550 nm and 810 nm optical bands. The measured results show that a clouded sky attenuates the signal heavily, and at the same time it increases the amount of noise at the receiver. The effects of the movement of clouds and dark rain clouds are also presented.