<title>Remote sensing of atmospheric turbulence and transverse atmospheric winds using optical reference sources</title>

Abstract

In the theory of atmospheric turbulence, the strength of the spatial variations of the index of refraction n is proportional to a parameter known as the atmospheric structure constant, denoted C, which is a function of position along the optical path z. The strength of the temporal variations of the index of refraction is directly related to the transverse velocity V of the turbulence along z. Current optical techniques for remotely sensing C and V rely primarily upon the spatial or temporal cross-correlation properties of the intensity of the optical field. In the technique proposed here, we exploit the correlation properties of the wave front slope measured from two different point sources in order to obtain vertical profiles of C(z) and V(z). Resolution on the order of 100 meters is possible with reference sources separated by 0.2 degrees.