Patent ID: 7561802

Claim:
A communications system for wireless transceiving of information, comprising: at least one multiple beam scanning array transceiver contained in a satellite for wirelessly transceiving the information, wherein the multiple beam scanning array transceiver is a multiple beam optical array transceiver that transceives free-space optical signals; at least two terminals at diverse locations capable of wirelessly transceiving said information between the terminals and the satellite; an apparatus for providing optical communications via an optical signal during adverse atmospheric conditions, comprising: a determiner for determining a change in the maximum achievable bandwidth based on the atmospheric conditions; and a controller for adjusting the pulse rate of the optical signal to compensate for the change in the maximum achievable bandwidth; and means for determining a particular type of atmospheric condition present, wherein the maximum achievable bandwidth is determined by the following equation: BW (τ)=10 a3+a2 log τ+a1(log τ)^2 where BW is the maximum achievable bandwidth, τ is an optical density of the atmospheric conditions, and a1, a2 and a3 are parameters that correspond to various cloud types, and wherein the optical density is calculated by the following equation: E (τ)= E ro e −τ/τo where E ro is a measured received energy, and τo is a known optical thickness of the particular type of atmospheric condition.