Annular beam scintillations in non-Kolmogorov weak turbulence

In a weakly turbulent atmosphere governed by the non-Kolmogorov spectrum, the on-axis scintillation index is formulated and evaluated when the incidence is an annular Gaussian type. When the power law of the non-Kolmogorov spectrum is varied, the scintillation index first increases, and reaches a peak value, then starts to decrease, and eventually approaches zero. The general trend is that when turbulence has a non-Kolmogorov spectrum with power law larger than the Kolmogorov power law, the scintillation index values become smaller. For all power laws, collimated annular Gaussian beams exhibit smaller scintillations when compared to pure Gaussian beams of the same size. Intensity fluctuations at a fixed propagation distance diminish for the non-Kolmogorov spectrum with a very large power law, irrespective of the focal length and the thickness of optical annular Gaussian sources.     

Effect of the intermittent atmosphere on laser scintillations

The evolution of the scintillation index of a spherical wave propagating through randomly varying profiles of the strength and the smallest scale of turbulence is calculated. These parameters were taken to be jointly log normal along the range. The specific parameters of the probability-density function that were used were taken from stratospheric experiments conducted by the U.S. Air Force.     

Statistical properties of cosmic-ray scintillations at 250 GV

Summary We present the results of an amplitude domain analysis of cosmic-ray fluctuations in the interplanetary field at average rigidities of 250 GV. The experimental histograms are compared with the theoretical probability densities obtained by assuming linear behaviour and yield interesting results on extremal events. The approximate agreement is interpreted not as a proof that high-rigidity scintillations are indeed linear, but as possible evidence of noise contamination in this kind of analysis.

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Riassunto Sono presentati i risultati dell'analisi in ampiezza delle fluttuazioni di raggi cosmici di rigidità media 250 GV nel campo interplanetario. Gli istogrammi sperimentali sono compatibili con un comportamento lineare e permettono di ottenere interessanti indicazioni sugli eventi estremi. L'accordo è interpretato non come una prova che le scintillazioni ad alta rigidità sono in effetti lineari, ma piuttosto come possibile evidenza di contaminazione da background in questo tipo di analisi.

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Резюме Мы приводим результаты анализа амплитудной области флуктуаций космических лучей в межпланетном поле при средних жесткостях 250 GV. Экспериментальные гистограммы согласуются с теоретическими предсказаниями, полученными в предположении линейного поведения и дают интересные результаты для экстремальных событий. Полученное согласие интерпретируется не как доказательство того, что сцинтилляции при высокой жесткости действительно являются линейными, а как возможное подтверждение наличия шумового загрязнения в этом типе анализа.

     

Temporal broadening and scintillations of ultrashort optical pulses

The purpose of this paper is to study the temporal broadening and temporal scintillations of ultrashort optical pulses. We present the general formulation of the temporal broadening and scintillation index of ultrashort (femtosecond) space-time Gaussian pulses propagating through weak optical turbulence and derive analytic approximations for the near- and far-field zones. We then apply the results to cross-link, uplink and downlink communication channels in a laser satellite communication system. We show that both the temporal broadening and scintillations depend mainly on the strength of optical turbulence and the outer scale and increase with these parameters. We also show that 10-30 fs pulses broaden significantly more and have greater scintillations than wide pulses. Furthermore, the horizontal and vertical/slant path temporal broadening are identical and the temporal scintillation indices exhibit similar behaviour.     

Partially coherent Lorentz Gaussian beam and its scintillations

We study the scintillation aspects of partially coherent Lorentz Gaussian (LG) beams via numerically integrating the average and average squared intensity expressions. Within the examined range of input and propagation medium parameters, the LG beams are generally found to offer less and less scintillations against the pure Gaussian beam, particularly when the Lorentzian feature of the beam is emphasized more. This lower scintillation property is exhibited for collimated coherent beams with different Lorentz widths and at on-axis and off-axis positions of the receiver plane. When focusing is introduced, at shorter propagation distances the ordering of the beams remains as described above, but at longer propagations distances a complete reversing of the beam order is observed. Raising the turbulence levels by increasing the structure constant inevitably causes rises in scintillations, while preserving the advantage of LG beams over the pure Gaussian beam. Partial coherence reduces scintillations as expected, at the same time nearly eliminating the scintillation differences between the beam types.     

Asymptotic analysis of finite-beam scintillations in a turbulent medium

Asymptotic analysis of on-axis intensity fluctuation variance of a finite-sized light beam is performed starting from the functional integral representation for the field in a random medium. Collimated, diverging and converging beams with different diffraction properties are considered. A complete set of asymptotes is obtained using the main and additional coherence channels approach to the fourth moment of field analyses. We study the conditions of weak and strong fluctuation regimes for all these types of beams and obtain relatively simple formulae for on-axis intensity variance, which are valid for the case of stratified turbulence. It is shown that scintillations in the vicinity of the beam focus are governed by double-scattering processes for weak scintillations and double scattering from coherence channels for strong fluctuations.     

Frequency matrix for the calculation of correlation functions in dipolar systems

The transverse correlation function of a truncated dipolar spin system in a high temperature approximation is calculated by means of a continuous set of variables and Mori's frequency matrix.     

Effect of refraction scintillations on the response of an interferometer

Abstract

Fluctuations of the interferometric response, averaged partly with an integration time much greater than the temporal scale of the diffraction scintillations and less than the temporal scale of the refraction scintillations, are discussed. The second moments of the interferometric response are obtained using a perturbation series for the partly-averaged coherence function. The correlations between the fluctuations of the partly-averaged flux and the coherence-length estimates are also obtained. The variances of these values are determined.     

Effect of refraction scintillations on the response of an interferometer

Fluctuations of the interferometric response, averaged partly with an integration time much greater than the temporal scale of the diffraction scintillations and less than the temporal scale of the refraction scintillations, are discussed. The second moments of the interferometric response are obtained using a perturbation series for the partly-averaged coherence function. The correlations between the fluctuations of the partly-averaged flux and the coherence-length estimates are also obtained. The variances of these values are determined.     

Simulations of large acoustic scintillations in the straits of Florida

Using a full-wave acoustic model, Monte Carlo numerical studies of intensity fluctuations in a realistic shallow water environment that simulates the Straits of Florida, including internal wave fluctuations and bottom roughness, have been performed. Results show that the sound intensity at distant receivers scintillates dramatically. The acoustic scintillation index SI increases rapidly with propagation range and is significantly greater than unity at ranges beyond about 10 km. This result supports a theoretical prediction by one of the authors. Statistical analyses show that the distribution of intensity of the random wave field saturates to the expected Rayleigh distribution with SI= 1 at short range due to multipath interference effects, and then SI continues to increase to large values. This effect, which is denoted supersaturation, is universal at long ranges in waveguides having lossy boundaries (where there is differential mode attenuation). The intensity distribution approaches a log-normal distribution to an excellent approximation; it may not be a universal distribution and comparison is also made to a K distribution. The long tails of the log-normal distribution cause "acoustic intermittency" in which very high, but rare, intensities occur.     

Higher order mode laser beam scintillations in oceanic medium

Abstract

In a horizontal oceanic optical wireless communication link, the scintillation index (the measure for the intensity fluctuations) of the received intensity caused by the oceanic turbulence is formulated and evaluated when the source is a higher order mode laser. Variations in the scintillation index vs. the underwater turbulence parameters, size of the higher order mode laser source, link length, and the wavelength are examined. Underwater turbulence parameters are the ratio that determines the relative strength of temperature and salinity in driving the index fluctuations, the rate of dissipation of the mean squared temperature, the rate of dissipation of the turbulent kinetic energy, and the Kolmogorov microscale length.     

Aperture-averaging effects for weak to strong scintillations in turbulent atmosphere

Under the approximations of (1) the received irradiance fluctuations of an optical wave caused by small scale turbulent eddies are multiplicatively modulated by the fluctuations caused by large scale turbulent eddies;(2) the scintillations caused by small- and large-scale eddies, respectively, are statistically independent; (3)the Rytov method for optical scintillation collected by the finite-diameter receiving aperture is valid for light wave propagation under weak to saturation fluctuation regime, we develop the applicable apertureaveraging analytic formulas in the week-to-strong-fluctuation for the scintillations of plane and spherical waves, which include the outer- and inner-scale rules of turbulence.     

Effect of spherical aberration on scintillations of Gaussian beams in atmospheric turbulence

The effect of spherical aberration on scintillations of Gaussian beams in weak, moderate and strong turbulence is studied using numerical simulation method. It is found that the effect of the negative spherical aberration on the on-axis scintillation index is quite different from that of the positive spherical aberration. In weak turbulence, the positive spherical aberration results in a decrease of the on-axis scintillation index on propagation, but the negative spherical aberration results in an increase of the on-axis scintillation index when the propagation distance is not large. In particular, in weak turbulence the negative spherical aberration may cause peaks of the on-axis scintillation index, and the peaks disappear in moderate and strong turbulence, which is explained in physics. The strong turbulence leads to less discrepancy among scintillations of Gaussian beams with and without spherical aberration.