Turbulence-noise in infrared lidar sensing

Error Analysis of Airborne LiDAR Retro-Reflection Measurements

“…We leverage that body of knowledge for estimation of turbulence's effect on our measurements, providing order of magnitude estimations of turbulence-induced irradiance variations. We use two references [6,7] to develop two different estimates on the effects of turbulence. Two different methods are used so that the estimates can be explored from multiple perspectives.…”

“…Additionally, since neither computational method is specific the NRL LiDAR measurements, usage of two independent techniques aids in checking the verity of results. The first reference is a peer-reviewed journal article by Ferdinandov, Tsanev, and Todorov [6]. In their article Ferdinadov et al utilize a heuristic model of the atmosphere and a contrast model of a target and background to mathematically derive the signal to turbulence noise ratio.…”

“…As previously mentioned, the methods of Ferdinandov et al [6] supply a heuristic model for calculation of signal to turbulence noise in LiDAR experiments. In Ferdinandov's article the atmosphere is considered to be a collection of small spherical lenses that act to both focus and/or scatter laser light.…”

“…We calculate the contrast of irradiance when light travels through a turbulent atmosphere described by parameters given in the caption of Fig. 3 [6]. Her e gamma=8km -1 , and C n 2 (0)=5x10 -16 .…”

“…Here we estimate Δ α =60%, calculated by dividing the simulated standard deviation by the simulated mean, according to the definition in Ref. [6].…”