A complete analysis of the link uncertainty budget for pulsed laser time transfer on China space station.

High-precision Time-Frequency Rack (HTFR) mission, a part of experiment module II of the China Space Station (CSS), was equipped with a Sr optical clock, H-maser, and laser-cooled microwave clock. To compare time and frequency across widely separated clocks, a microwave link, and a pulsed laser link were both established, which probably enables new possibilities for fundamental science, geodesy, and metrology. Based on the existing relativistic theory for time and frequency transfer, we derive a relativistic model of satellite-ground laser time transfer on CSS (CLT), which can be of direct use in CLT data processing. In addition to first and second-order Sagnac effects, it also includes relativistic rate shifts, atmospheric refraction, and turbulence, laser retroreflector array (LRA) range correction, and position correction between detector and reflector, satisfying the stability evaluation of CSS atomic clocks with fractional frequency stability of 3 × 10−17/10000 s. Additionally, we numerically investigate the link error magnitude and use Monte Carlo simulations to assess the impact of correcting for link errors on the stability of the CLT, taking into account the CSS orbit and attitude determinations as well as the CLT payload calibration parameters. It is shown that the CLT link can be considered to reach a TDEV of approximately 0.1 ps/300 s while meeting the CSS design objectives. The primary factors that influence the stability of the CLT are the position correction between detector and reflector, LRA range correction, and the coupling relation of these two error distributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]