Abstract
A new method of evaluating the mutual-coherence function for propagation in a randomly inhomogeneous medium like the atmosphere is presented. The new method, which is highly physical, as distinct from a mathematical approach, does not involve the treatment of any differential equations. Instead, the treatment is based on decomposition of a randomly distorted wavefront into a set of plane waves with random amplitudes. These plane waves constitute orthogonal modes. Propagation in a random medium is treated as the physical process of diffusion of amplitude (or energy) between the modes, and a short-path-propagator function for this diffusion is developed. From the short-path-propagator function, a long-path-propagator function is easily obtained, and from this the mutual-coherence function is computed. Starting from the known short-path mutual-coherence function, which is known to be accurate, the mutual-coherence function for long paths is obtained. The results are in agreement with previous results, all of whose derivations have recently been subject to criticism. Because this derivation is not a mathematical exercise, it should not be subject to any of these or similar criticisms, which were primarily questions of mathematical rigor.
© 1968 Optical Society of America
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