Backscatter amplification in a turbulent atmosphere and the law of conservation of energy

We demonstrate how energy is redistributed and the law of conservation of energy is fulfilled when optical radiation is reflected in a turbulent atmosphere. It is found that the mean intensity of a laser beam, scattered by a point reflector or an ensemble of point reflectors in a turbulent atmosphere, increases in a strictly backward direction as compared to the intensity of the beam scattered in a homogeneous medium without turbulence-the backscatter amplification (BSA) effect-at the expense of overflow of the energy of the scattered beam from the side directions covering a huge area of several orders of magnitude exceeding the BSA effect localization area. (c) 2023 Optica Publishing Group