Abstract. Free space optical (FSO) communication is a potential technology for last-mile applications. The major advantages are the high transmission rates, inherent security, and unlicensed spectrum. However, in practical applications, the main challenge for FSO communication systems is the performance degradation imposed by the different atmospheric conditions. In this paper, coherent optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing access (CO-OFDMA) technique is adopted in the FSO communication system. M-ary phase shift keying (MPSK, M=4,8,16) downstream signals are transmitted at 40Gb/s for 100 meters and 300 meters transmission under five weather conditions (sunny, light rain, moderate rain, snow, heavy fog). And the characteristics of the received signals are analyzed. In sunny day, the received phase information of constellation diagram is obvious, and the BER is 10 -4.5. In rainy, snow and foggy days, the system can still maintain communication for short transmission.