Polarization States Rotation in Satellite-to-Earth Quantum and Classical Optical Communications

Satellite quantum and classical optical communication technologies have had rapid growth in the last decade. The polarization of the light is usually used to encode information or increase the data transfer speed in such systems. However, relative motion during the communication session causes the satellite’s and ground station’s polarization reference frames to spin mutually. We offer an analytical model for calculating the relative rotation of the polarization reference frame between the low Earth orbit satellite and the ground station. Based on the model, we simulate four typical satellite passage and analyze the polarization deviation angle between the satellite and the altazimuth ground telescope.