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SSI's Optical Communications team has had many encounters with fog.  Rain makes optical communication links difficult, due to the scattering properties of drops of water in the optical path. Fog tends to cause even more problems than rain, due to the large number of very fine water droplets.  

SSI's [[Optical Communications]] team has had many encounters with fog.  Rain makes optical communication links difficult, due to the scattering properties of drops of water in the optical path. Fog tends to cause even more problems than rain, due to the large number of very fine water droplets.  

On a typical night, fog forms where the coast meets the Pacific Ocean and is blown inland and over the top of the Santa Cruz mountains. The [[Skyline Boulevard]] test site is in the Santa Cruz mountains, and is quite often host to very dense fog as the temperature drops below the dew point with nightfall. To date, this phenomenon has severely interfered with three 10 km OpComms tests.

On a typical night, fog forms where the coast meets the Pacific Ocean and is blown inland and over the top of the Santa Cruz mountains. The [[Skyline Boulevard]] test site is in the Santa Cruz mountains, and is quite often host to very dense fog as the temperature drops below the dew point with nightfall. To date, this phenomenon has severely interfered with three 10 km OpComms tests.

Cloud formation may pose problems for optical communication satellites, due to the requirement of a clear path to the receiver from a point in space.  The extent of this problem has not yet been determined.

Cloud formation may pose problems for optical communication satellites, due to the requirement of a clear path to the receiver from a point in space.  The extent of this problem has not yet been determined.