Two applications for teaching and Telecommunication Engineering students the atmospheric effects on the optical channels. Applications in Astronomy, Mechanical Engineering and Telecommunications

Abstract

Atmospheric turbulence is one of the limiting phenomena in interesting applications and fields such of optical telecommunications and Observational Astronomy. Both Telecommunication and Aerospace Engineering students may encounter those applications in their professional careers, thus, there is the necessity to introduce this phenomenon and its impact on those fields at the academic formation stage. In order to teach students of the principles and effects of the atmospheric turbulence in optical propagation, and to illustrate how to solve these problems, two different applications written in MATLAB© were developed. In this communication both applications and the theoretical background are presented, and the designed activity for Telecommunication Engineers is shown. Results obtained by students and their experience performing the activity are also presented.