Propagation of pulsed beam waves through turbulence, cloud, rain, or fog

The problem of propagation of pulsed beam waves in an atmosphere with turbulence, rain, or fog is investigated using the temporal moments method. Exact analytical expressions are derived for the mean arrival time and the mean square pulse width for the pulsed beam after it has propagated through the turbulent atmosphere. The results are valid even for strong scattering conditions. Numerical examples indicate that at optical frequencies, the effects of the atmospheric turbulence on the pulses are small except perhaps for picosecond pulses. However, the effects of clouds on optical pulsed beams can be quite severe. At microwave frequencies, scattering by rain may have very large effects on the pulses.