Experimental Measurements Of Laser Beam Scintillation Statistics PDF Download

Log-amplitude variance and covariance of the scintillation of a diverging optical beam have been measured over a 48-hr period at a wavelength of 0.63[mu], on a 490 and 1000 m optical paths 2 m above the surface of a flat mesa near Boulder, Colorado. Simultaneous measurements of the refractive-index structure of the atmosphere have been obtained from temperature-structure-function measurements at spacings of 1, 3, and 10 cm. A saturation of scintillation occurs for values of log-amplitude variance between 0.5 and 1. After reaching a peak, the log-amplitude variance then decreases with both increasing range and increasing refractive-index turbulence. The spatial covariance of the fluctuations tends to increase in the saturation region. In the unsaturated region, the log-amplitude variance is approximately that predicted by the spherical-wave propagation theory of Tatarski.