The feasibility of laser experiments for measuring atmospheric turbulence parameters

An investigation of the feasibility of several line-of-sight propagation experiments utilizing lasers in studying atmospheric turbulence has shown that it is possible, theoretically, to find the permittivity spectrum, Φ(K), or its associated correlation function from measurements of the correlation function of amplitude, phase, or angle of arrival over parallel line-of-sight paths. Although the phase variations are relatively insensitive to variations in the assumed permittivity spectrum, the angle-of-arrival and amplitude measurements are more sensitive and hence would be more suitable for attempting to determine Φ (K) experimentally. From the point of view of communications analysis, the results show that the assumed Φ (K) is not too important in the analysis of phase variations but is quite important in the analysis of angle-of-arrival and amplitude variations.