Theoretical investigations of infrared optical wave modulation transfer function models in anisotropic marine turbulence.

Abstract

The previously derived marine turbulence modulation transfer function (MTF) adopts the classical assumption of isotropic and Kolmogorov turbulence. However, more theoretical research shows that marine turbulence demonstrates anisotropic non-Kolmogorov properties. In this study, new long-exposure plane and spherical wave MTF models under anisotropic non-Kolmogorov marine turbulence will be investigated. Comparative analyses are performed for the new models and the existing ones that have been developed under the isotropic marine turbulence and the anisotropic terrestrial turbulence cases. It turns out that the anisotropic marine turbulence influences the electro-optical imaging system less than the isotropic marine turbulence does. Also, under the same turbulence strength condition, due to the humidity fluctuations of marine atmosphere, the anisotropic marine turbulence will reduce more severely the quality of electro-optical imaging systems than the anisotropic terrestrial turbulence. Investigations conducted in this paper are beneficial to understand better the electro-optical imaging mechanism in marine atmospheric turbulence media.