Availability of Direct Water-to-Air Optical Wireless Links Through Oceanic Gravity Waves

Attaining higher speed data communication from underwater to airborne platforms is of high interest for a variety of applications. Existing solutions are cumbersome, involving buoys at the water surface. Direct wireless communication from underwater to an airborne platform using optical beams would resolve several practical issues and potentially enable new wireless applications. We studied the propagation of Gaussian coherent beams from an underwater laser transmitter to a receiver in the open air in the presence of gravity-generated water waves at deep ocean levels. We modeled the emission of coherent Gaussian beams in the presence of third-order Stokes water surface waves. Further, we explored the relationship between beam propagation and turbulence caused by the water waves. The effect of the water wave's steepness and the divergence angle of the underwater laser on the amount of received power was investigated, as well as the link's availability, link power capacity, and survivor analysis of the power collected at the receiver.