The use of spectral parameters of temperature fluctuations in estimating the structure constant of turbulence

Abstract

The structure constant of refractive index fluctuations is one of the most important characteristics of atmospheric turbulence affecting the propagation of optical radiation. However, in a real atmosphere, the conditions of homogeneity and isotropy of turbulence, which are necessary for a correct experimental estimation of the structure constant and its further use in calculations, are not always realized. In 1, to characterize real turbulence, it is proposed to use an equivalent structure constant calculated by introducing a scaling factor depending on the parameters of the spectrum of turbulent fluctuations - the outer scale and the exponent of the spectrum. In order to assess the possibility of using this approach, the report presents the results of calculations of an equivalent structure constant based on spectral processing of sonic weather station data.