OPERATION AND DATA-ANALYSIS IN THE LASSO EXPERIMENT

LASSO is a time transfer experiment which uses a laser link to a geostationary satellite. It allows time comparisons between remote clocks. A new concept of operation is proposed: the comparison of ground clocks by monitoring the satellite clock seen from each station. This technique has been successfully tested between McDonald Observatory (Texas) and the Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur (France). The common sessions show that LASSO allows intercontinental time transfer, as well as satellite clock monitoring, with a precision better than 100 picoseconds.