Measuring anisotropy ellipse of atmospheric turbulence by intensity correlations of laser light

Abstract

An experimental study has been performed of a laser beam propagating horizontally through the near-ground atmosphere above a grassy field at the University of Miami (UM) Coral Gables campus. The average intensity, scintillation index, and intensity correlation function are measured in the receiver plane for three channels with different turbulent conditions and at three different heights above the ground. Our results reveal that along short links (210 m) only the intensity correlation function captures the anisotropic information of turbulence, corresponding to the refractive index anisotropy ellipse of atmospheric fluctuations. In addition, we report an interesting phenomenon relating to turbulence eddy orientation near the ground. We confirmed that the experimental results are in agreement with the numerical simulations based on the multiple phase-screen method. Our findings provide an efficient method of determining the anisotropic parameters of atmospheric turbulence.