Provided herein is a method for controlling an optical uplink to a
spacecraft, including: providing an output
laser beam pointing to a location along a trajectory of the
spacecraft through a path in the
atmosphere; the output
laser beam provided with a beam
waist. The method includes monitoring an
image pattern obtained from a first image of a beam received from the location and a second image of a
reference beam from the output
laser beam; determining from the monitored
image pattern a relative turbulence strength for the received laser beam along the path in the
atmosphere, the turbulence strength based on a beam
waist value of the output laser beam and a Fried parameter related value and / or a measured isoplanatic angle; comparing the relative turbulence strength with a predetermined
performance factor value; based on the comparison, determining control of the output laser beam either using a
divergence control for the beam expanding device or using a
wavefront correction control for the
wavefront corrector, and a
processing unit is configured to select the
wavefront correction control if the relative turbulence strength exceeds the predetermined
performance factor value, and else to select the
divergence control of the output laser beam.