Abstract

Scintillation measurements are described for a very-large integrated-path turbulence. Measurements were made with simultaneous, coincident beams at 10.6 μm and 4880 Å over a 6-km uniform path. The experimental results include (i) the (log amplitude) variance at 10.6 μm showed saturation at a level comparable to that for shorter wavelengths; (ii) the variance beyond saturation at 4880 Å decreased for increasing turbulence (C_n²), with an exponent of (−0.48) and no apparent asymptote; (iii) the covariance functions, C_l(r), exhibited the emergence of two scale sizes, as manifested by a rapid initial drop vs $\left(r\right)$, and a residual correlation out to large separations; (iv) a corresponding effect was revealed by the spectra of scintillations; (v) receiver-aperture smoothing at 4880 Å was very poor, owing to the large residual correlation sizes; and (vi) the amplitude statistics at both wavelengths approximated log-normal distributions.

© 1973 Optical Society of America

Experimental effects of finite transmitter apertures on scintillations*

J. Richard Kerr and James R. Dunphy
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 63(1) 1-8 (1973)

Experiments on Turbulence Characteristics and Multiwavelength Scintillation Phenomena*

J. Richard Kerr
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 62(9) 1040-1049 (1972)

Scintillation and transmitter-aperture averaging over vertical paths*

P. J. Titterton
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 63(4) 439-444 (1973)

Airborne laser-beam scintillation measurements at high altitudes*

Glen J. Morris
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 63(3) 263-270 (1973)

Scintillation in an Earth-to-Space Propagation Path

Peter O. Minott
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 62(7) 885-888 (1972)