Spatial power spectrum of natural water turbulence with any average temperature, salinity concentration, and light wavelength.

Abstract

The power spectrum of water optical turbulence is shown to vary with its average temperature ⟨T⟩ and average salinity concentration ⟨S⟩, as well as with light wavelength λ. This study explores such variations for ⟨T⟩∈[0∘C,30∘C], ⟨S⟩∈[0ppt,40ppt] covering most of the possible natural water conditions within the Earth's boundary layer and for visible electromagnetic spectrum, λ∈[400nm,700nm]. For illustration of the effects of these parameters on propagating light, we apply the developed power spectrum model for estimation of the scintillation index of a plane wave (the Rytov variance) and the threshold between weak and strong turbulence regimes.