Air-Sea Surface Modeling and Operating Link Range Evaluation for AUV-to-UAV Optical Wireless Communication Links

Abstract

Air-sea surface interactions play a critical role in underwater-to-air optical wireless communication (OWC) links, particularly in vertical autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) to unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) scenarios, where the stochastic nature of the sea surface introduces optical distortions that impair link reliability. This work investigates the impact of air-sea surface roughness on AUV-to-UAV OWC systems using two experimentally validated models: the classical Cox-Munk and the Elfouhaily-Chapron-Katsaros-Vandemark (ECKV). A tractable analytical representation of the ECKV model is derived and validated against measured sea-state data. Using both analytical and Monte Carlo approaches, the link ergodic capacity is evaluated with particular emphasis on operating range, pointing errors, receiver field-of-view, and solar noise level, providing practical system design insights.