Characterization of Laser Propagation Over a Long Path through Atmospheric Turbulence

An important consideration for the laser beam propagation through a long atmospheric path is the geometry of the optical path and random variations in the refractive index due to atmospheric turbulence. Here, we consider a plane wave propagation through a 10km medium to investigate the deep turbulence effects on the beam propagation using phase screen approach. The turbulence effects are modeled by non-Kolmogorov descriptions of energy cascade theory, known as beta-model. The beta-model incorporates space-filling concepts for the turbulent eddies in the inertial ranges using fractal descriptions for the eddies. Metrics based on intensity and phase variances and number of zero intensity values are analyzed for various levels of turbulence intensity (measured by Cn2) by choosing the value of power law exponent from a range of eligible values. It is observed that metrics based on intensity variance saturate but metrics based on phase variance show potential for characterizing stronger turbulence effects.