Nowadays, the search for a distribution capable of modeling the probability density function (PDF) of irradiance data under all conditions of atmospheric turbulence in the presence of aperture averaging still continues. Here, a family of PDFs alternative to the widely accepted Log-Normal and Gamma-Gamma distributions is proposed to model the PDF of the received optical power in free-space optical communications, namely, the Weibull and the exponentiated Weibull (EW) distribution. Particularly, it is shown how the proposed EW distribution offers an excellent fit to simulation and experimental data under all aperture averaging conditions, under weak and moderate turbulence conditions, as well as for point-like apertures. Another very attractive property of these distributions is the simple closed form expression of their respective PDF and cumulative distribution function.

In an optical communication link between an optical ground station and a geostationary satellite the main problems appear in the uplink and are due to beam wander and to scintillation. Reliable methods for modeling both effects simultaneously are needed to provide an accurate tool with which the robustness of the communication channel can be tested. Numerical tools, especially the split-step method ͑also referred to as the fast-Fourier-transform beam propagation method͒, have demonstrated their ability to deal with problems of optical propagation during atmospheric turbulence. However, obtaining statistically significant results with this technique is computationally intensive. We present an analyticalnumerical hybrid technique that provides good information on the variance in optical irradiance with an important saving of time and computational resources.

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