Empirical evaluation of the anisoplanatic bispectrum transfer function for extended objects

In contrast to theory, speckle imaging has proven an effective tool for scene recovery over long horizontal paths where imaging distortions are highly anisoplanatic. One possible explanation for this efficacy is that the atmospheric bispectrum transfer function is less attenuated at higher spatial frequencies when the object is extended and not a pair of point sources, as examined by theory. In this work, I empirically evaluate the speckle, cross-spectrum, and bispectrum transfer functions by comparing these quantities as derived from both field and simulation data to a simulated diffraction-limited reference image. The empirical transfer function relationships are found by comparing turbulence quantities to those of their diffraction-limited counterparts.