Abstract
We report measurements of the statistical properties of the intensity fluctuations in a He/Ne laser beam which had propagated 1·125 km through the earth's atmosphere. The beam size was such that the beam propagated as a spherical wave, and atmospheric conditions such that most measurements were made in the ‘saturation’ region (β0 ∼ 1-4). We found (1) that the variance of the intensity was considerably larger than that previously reported for plane wave propagation, and (2) that the probability distribution of the intensity and the derived moments were close to the K-distribution and its moments. The origin and significance of the K-distribution in atmospheric propagation is considered. Photon counting techniques were used for all measurements.
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