Further results from the previously reported atmospheric turbulence chamber are discussed in this paper. The generated turbulence has been characterized by evaluating isotropy and homogeneity within the chamber by measuring temperature structure functions for various nozzle pressures and temperature differences. Measurements of higher-order intensity moments were utilized to reconstruct the probability density functions and were compared with Log- Normally Modulated Exponential, Log-Normal and Gamma distributions. The power spectrum of intensity fluctuations of a laser beam propagated through the generated turbulence provided additional characterization of the chamber regarding scale sizes and frequency cut-offs. Fried's parameter (r₀) and the Greenwood frequency of the artificially generated turbulence were computed and were shown that it is possible to simulate the real atmospheric parameters with a modified design of the present chamber.

Date Published: 3 November 1999
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 3760, High-Resolution Wavefront Control: Methods, Devices, and Applications, (3 November 1999); doi: 10.1117/12.367585

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 3760:
High-Resolution Wavefront Control: Methods, Devices, and Applications
John D. Gonglewski; Mikhail A. Vorontsov, Editor(s)