This paper studies the performance of the clock transfer scheme for burst-mode communication systems for which data are received during short, equally spaced intervals. Its main focus is on satellite-based time-division multiple-access (TDMA) communication systems with data regeneration and switching onboard the satellite, although the results apply to other TDMA systems as well. The system reference clock is generated onboard from an incoming, very stable ground source, based on a burst-mode demodulator that extracts the clock from a discontinuous modulated carrier due to the bursty nature of TDMA signals. If good enough, this onboard regenerated clock avoids the use of bulky and expensive clocks in the satellite payload and can act as the master clock of the TDMA system.

An internal study has been carried out at ESTEC/WSP (Onboard Image and Signal Processing Section) about compression of synthetic optical multispectral images which will reflect characteristics of future satellites' imagers. The images produced by these instruments are composed by up to 15 bands in the range of 400-1050 nm, with radiometric resolutions of 8-16 bpp and a spatial resolution of around 250-300 m. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a fast and simple onboard data compression process to reduce the amount of data to be transmitted to ground stations or to be stored on the satellites' on-board recorders.