Analysis of angle of arrival fluctuations for optical waves' propagation through weak anisotropic non-Kolmogorov turbulence.

Abstract

Analytical expressions for the variance of angle of arrival (AOA) fluctuations based on the Rytov approximation theory are derived for plane and spherical waves' propagation through weak anisotropic non-Kolmogorov turbulence atmosphere. The anisotropic spectrum model based on the assumption of circular symmetry in the orthogonal plane throughout the path is adopted and it includes the same degree of anisotropy along the direction of propagation for all the turbulence cells size in the inertial sub-range. The derived expressions consider a single anisotropic coefficient describing the turbulence anisotropic property and a general spectral power law value in the range 3 to 4. They reduce correctly to the previously published analytic expressions for the cases of plane and spherical waves' propagation through weak isotropic non-Kolmogorov turbulence for the special case of anisotropic factor equaling one. To reduce the complexity of the analytical results, the asymptotic-fit expressions are also derived and they fit well with the close-form ones. These results are useful for understanding the potential impact of deviations from the standard isotropic non-Kolmogorov turbulence atmosphere.