High-Frequency Plane-Wave Filter Function for a Folded Path

Abstract

Expressions have been developed for the variance of amplitude and phase of an optical signal propagating over a folded path. A comparison of folded- and straight-path scintillation characteristics indicates that the folded-path scintillations are heavily weighted by larger turbulent scale sizes, and the straight-path scintillations are determined by smaller turbulent sizes. The effects of turbulent scale sizes located at various distances from the laser are examined for both folded and straight paths.