Modeling of Atmospheric Turbulence

According to Kolomogorov theory, turbulence is due to random motion of

large regions or cells of nearly the same refractive index. Due to
atmospheric mixing, the energy of large cells is redistributed without loss
to eddies of decreasing size. The size of eddies varies from few mm to few
meters, denoted as inner scale l0 and outer scale L0, respectively. With
reference to atmospheric turbulence, the atmosphere is characterized by
i. Eddy size i.e., l0 and L0
ii. Atmospheric structure constant, Cn2
The refractive index of the atmosphere is given by

where n0 is the average index and n1 is the fluctuation component

induced by the atmospheric turbulence. Variation of n with space and
time can be expressed by the correlation function as

-
 For the time-invariant system, correlation function reduces to  (r , r )
n1 1 2
which describes the spatial coherence of the refractive index.
The spatial Fourier transform of n1 ( r1 , r2 ) is denoted by ϕn (k). As per
Kolomogorov, it is given as
11
kolomoze no
power-  n (k )  0.333Cn2 k  3 1 1
, k
specia
-
-
low L0 l0

where wave-number spectrum structure parameter Cn2 is altitude

dependent.
For horizontal link at ground level, typical values of Cn2 are as given
below
2
C n2  10 13 m 3
Strong Turbulence
2
C n2  10  17 m 3 Weak Turbulence
2
 15
C n  10 m 3
2
Moderate Turbulence
On (k)
funtuations
index
-

for refractive
Power
spectual density homogenity
size in
20-highest 2

to smallestsize
in homogenity
For slanted link, Cn2 value can be determined from several available
theoretical models. Among these, the most commonly used model is
Hufnagel Valley Boundary (HVB) model.

As per HVB model, Cn2 as a function of altitude is given by

where h is the altitude in meters, V the wind speed in m/s and A the
nominal value of Cn2(0) at the ground in m-2/3.

3
Spatial Coherence of Optical Signals
Spatial coherence of optical wave is described by the Mutual
Coherence Function (MCF) as

where
U(r) is the complex electric field and
r the space vector.
The Rytov method is frequently used to expand the optical field as

U (r )  A(r ) exp[ j (r )]  U 0 (r ) exp(1 )

where
U0(r) is the field amplitude without air turbulence and
ϕ1 the perturbation factor.

Now let us take

 U 0 ( r )  A 0 ( r ) exp[ j  0 ( r )]
With this
A ( r ) exp( j  ( r ))  A 0 ( r ) exp[ j  0 ( r )] exp(  1 )
Therefore
A(r)
exp(  1 )  exp  j (  ( r )   0 ( r )) 
A0 ( r )
or
A(r)
 j  ( r )   0 ( r )   X  jS
&

  1  ln
A0 ( r )
where
X : log-amplitude fluctuations and
S : phase fluctuations
Both X and S are presumed to be homogenous, isotropic and independent
Gaussian random variables.
For characterizing turbulence-induced fluctuations of log-amplitude X ,
the covariance function is

In weak turbulence, Rytov variance is used to determine the normalized

covariance function as
1

In
->
<do

where d12 is the distance between two positions r1 and r2. Correlation
length is defined as the distance for which, bX(d0) = e-2.
When the propagation distance satisfy the condition
l0  L  L0
then d0 can be approximated by d 0  L .
When the receiver aperture is made larger than the d0, then turbulence
induced fading can be reduced substantially by antenna averaging.
 Correlation length is a very important parameter while designing the
receiver (diversity techniques). In most FSO systems with visible or IR
lasers and with propagation distance of a few 100 meters to a few kms,
the above equation for correlation length is valid.
Temporal Coherence of Optical Signal
Atmospheric turbulence also varies with time and leads to intensity
fluctuations that are temporally correlated.
Modeling the movement of atmospheric eddies is extremely difficult.
However, the Taylor frozen air model can be used to find approximately
the temporal coherence.
Taylor’s Frozen Air Model
In this model, collection of eddies are presumed to be frozen in relation
to one another while the entire collection is translated along some
direction by wind.
The electrical field U(r, t) has time dependence given by

U (r , t   )  U (r  V , t )
for any time t.
model and state conditions
⑨ is
What Taylor's frozen
air

under which
it
fails?
Taylor frozen turbulence hypothesis permits converting spatial statistics
into temporal statistics by knowledge of V┴ using above equation.
This hypothesis fails, when V┴ is considerably less than the magnitude
of turbulence fluctuations i.e., mean wind speed is parallel to the line of
sight.
Turbulence correlation time is given as

d0
0 
V