Calculating the Microstructure of Atmospheric Optical Turbulence

Abstract

Turbulent fluctuations in air density can cause significant distortions of an electromagnetic signal or image. Density fluctuations can be described in terms of air temperature, air pressure, water vapor, and CO2 content. We can calculate the refractive index structure constant, Cn2, with the fine scale dynamics of heat, moisture, and momentum diffusion. This helps us to quantify the intensity of turbulence induced refraction. A better understanding of turbulence induced refraction can provide a means of evaluating sensors under various atmospheric conditions or be used in the development of turbulence compensation adaptive optic systems. This report annotates one set of equations for the refractive index structure constant, Cn2, taken from the literature.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 1998
Accession Number
ADA358511

Entities

People

  • Arnold D. Tunick

Organizations

  • United States Army Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Pressure
  • Air Temperature
  • Artillery
  • Atmospheric Sciences
  • Barometric Pressure
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Equations
  • Heat Energy
  • Heat Flux
  • Humidity
  • Meteorology
  • Military Research
  • Refraction
  • Refractive Index
  • Temperature Gradients
  • Vapor Pressure
  • Water Vapor

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
  • Thermal Physics or Thermal Science.
  • Wave Propagation and Nonlinear Chaotic Dynamics.