The distribution of optical turbulence ( C n 2 profiles) is the fundamental parameter closely related to the design and application of optoelectronic systems. Since systematic direct measurements of optical turbulence for many climates and seasons are not available, it is useful to estimate C n 2 effectively from the routine meteorological parameters. The C n 2 profiles are estimated by routine meteorological parameters based on the Tatarskii model, and the estimated results are compared with the corresponding radiosonde measurements from the field campaigns at Rongcheng ( 122.37 ∘ E , 37.15 ∘ N ), Taizhou ( 121.42 ∘ E , 28.62 ∘ N ), and Dachaidan ( 95.35 ∘ E , 37.74 ∘ N ) in China. The agreement between the estimation model and the measurement is very close, except for a portion of the atmosphere where it showed considerable difference. Additionally, statistical operators are used to quantify the performance of the estimated model, and the statistical results also show that the estimated and measured C n 2 profiles are consistent well. Furthermore, the integrated parameters (such as the Fried parameter, r 0 ) from radiosonde measurement are 7.92 cm, 5.39 cm, and 3.68 cm at Rongcheng, Taizhou, and Dachaidan, respectively. Therefore, the C n 2 profiles and their characteristics in these typical climate sites provide useful information to assess the effect of laser transmission in the atmosphere, which are usually used in the design of optoelectronic systems and astronomical site testing.

Optical turbulence strongly affects different types of optoelectronic and adaptive optics systems. Systematic direct measurements of optical turbulence profiles [Cn2(h)] are lacking for many climates and seasons, particularly in marine environments, because it is impractical and expensive to deploy instrumentation. Here, a backpropagation neural network optimized using a genetic algorithm (GA-BP) is developed to estimate atmospheric turbulence profiles in marine environments which is validated against corresponding [Cn2(h)] profile datasets from a field campaign of balloon-borne microthermal measurements at the Haikou marine environment site. Overall, the trend and magnitude of the GA-BP model and measurements agree. The [Cn2(h)] profiles from the GA-BP model are generally superior to those obtained by BP and the physically-based (HMNSP99) models. Several statistical operators were used to quantify the GA-BP model performance on reconstructing the optical turbulence profiles in marine environments. The characterization of vertical distributions of optical turbulence profiles and the main integral parameters derived from [Cn2(h)] profiles are presented. The median Fried parameter, isoplanatic angle, and coherence time are 9.94 cm, 0.69′′, and 2.85 ms, respectively, providing independent optical turbulence parameters for adaptive optics systems. The proposed approach exhibits potential for implementation in ground-based optical applications in marine environments.