Optical beamforming and interferometry using digital source modulation

A system for optical beamforming and interferometry using digital source modulation, comprising

• a plurality of sub-apertures, including a reference sub-aperture, for receiving and transmitting a digital source modulation (DSM) signal and payload/science signal via respective optical waveguides, wherein temporal variations in the optical waveguides are indiscernible from atmospheric variations;
• a plurality of per-sub-aperture PID servos for receiving the DSM signal and payload/science signal from the optical waveguides and performing delay correction/compensation operations to remove atmospheric and temporal optical waveguide variations;
• a station reference clock and DSM (tracer) message decoder for receiving the DSM signal from the reference sub-aperture and outputting reference clock signals to the plurality of per-sub-aperture PID servos;
• an optical beamformer/summer for summing the optical payload and DSM signals from which atmospheric and temporal optical waveguide variations have been removed by the plurality of per-sub-aperture PID servos;
• and
• a calibration block for receiving the summed optical payload and DSM signals and generating and transmitting coherency calibration signals to the plurality of per-sub-aperture PID servos for establishing coherence between the optical payload and DSM signals output from the plurality of per-sub-aperture PID servos.