The Characterization of an Atmospheric Optics Facility
Abstract
The Atmospheric Optics community currently relies on theoretical approximations of both turbulence characteristics and beam perturbations for the design and analysis of emerging technologies such as directed energy and optical communication links. In order to quantify the applicability and accuracy of such models it is advantageous to study beam propagation within a controlled aerodynamic environment. While several such facilities have been used in the past, direct measurement of parameters such as the refractive index structure constant and turbulent length scales have been lacking and can lead to over-reliance on theoretical assumptions. This work reports on controlled beam propagation experiments in Texas A&M’s Subscale Atmospheric Facility (SAF) wherein scintillation, Filtered Rayleigh Scattering (FRS), and parallel beam correlation experiments were conducted to quantify turbulence parameters and Atmospheric Optic effects without
conventional reliance on theoretical assumptions. Key findings include the scaling of the scintillation index as L³ over a wide ranging of turbulence strength where the inner scale ranged from 5.2mm < lₒ < 7.8mm as measured by two-beam correlation experiments. Furthermore, the refractive index structure parameter C²ₙ varied from 2.93 × 10⁻¹¹ to 1.01 × 10⁻¹⁰ m⁻⅔ dependent on the heat dissipation rate of the wire turbulence generator.
Subject
Atmospheric OpticsFiltered Rayleigh Scattering
Scintillation
parallel beam correlation
laser propagation
Citation
Erickson, Grant Earl (2022). The Characterization of an Atmospheric Optics Facility. Master's thesis, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /197387.