Experimental measurements were recently made which displayed characteristics of plane wave propagation through anisotropic optical turbulence. A near-plane wave beam was propagated a distance of 1 and 2 km at a height of 2 m above the concrete runway at the Shuttle Landing Facility, Kennedy Space Center, Florida, during January and February of 2017. The spatial-temporal fluctuations of the beam were recorded, and the covariance of intensity was calculated. These data sets were compared to a theoretical calculation of covariance of intensity for a plane wave.

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The inner scale plays a critical role in beam scintillation and branch point evolution in optical propagation through atmospheric turbulence. Understanding this parameter, in-situ, during experiments is therefore of great interest. We compare different methods of estimating the inner scale using AFRL's Small Mobile Atmospheric Sensing Hartmann (SMASH). The investigations are conducted with data collected at Kirtland, AFB in New Mexico along multiple paths varying from weak to strong irradiance fluctuation conditions.

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