Irradiance scintillation models of plane and spherical waves considering the general distribution of anisotropic turbulence cells

Abstract

Theoretical investigations and experiments have shown the atmosphere turbulence exhibit anisotropic properties. In this work, the irradiance scintillation of optical plane and spherical waves in weak anisotropic turbulence will be investigated. Previously derived irradiance scintillation index of plane and spherical waves in weak anisotropic turbulence assumed the circular symmetric distribution of turbulence cells in the plane orthogonal to the direction of propagation. This assumption is very special for the real anisotropic turbulence. To consider the general distribution of turbulence cells in anisotropic turbulence, new expressions for the irradiance scintillation index of plane and spherical waves in weak anisotropic non-Kolmogorov turbulence have been derived with the Rytov approximation theory. In the investigations, two anisotropic factors are introduced to parameterize the asymmetric distribution of turbulence cells in anisotropic turbulence. In addition, the general spectral power law α in the range 3–4 and the finite turbulence inner and outer scales are considered in the modeling. Calculations are performed to analyze these parameters’ influences on the derived irradiance scintillation index models of optical waves.