Numerical simulation of the effect of refractive turbulence on coherent lidar return statistics in the atmosphere

Onboard wake vortex localization with a coherent 1.5 µm Doppler LIDAR for aircraft in formation flight configuration

An onboard LIght Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) sensor designed to track wake vortex created by aircraft in formation flight is presented. It uses short pulses (75 ns) to obtain a spatial resolution of ∼22.5 m required to resolve small-scale structures of vortices and a blind zone of 17.5 m to locate vortices next to the wing tip. Monte Carlo simulations show that vortex centers could be located within ±0.5 m. Flight tests were performed with two aircraft in formation flight configuration. The LIDAR, installed in the following aircraft, was able to measure, in real time (every 6 s), the air flow velocities induced by the vortices created by the leading aircraft. The software was used to determine the vortex centers. These measurements were coupled to global positioning system (GPS) measurements of the two aircraft positions to determine the falling velocity of the vortices and infer their circulations.

Structure parameter of anisotropic atmospheric turbulence expressed in terms of anisotropic factors and oceanic turbulence parameters

The structure parameter of the anisotropic atmospheric turbulence is expressed in terms of atmospheric, oceanic anisotropic factors in x and y directions, and the oceanic turbulence parameters, which are the wavelength, the link length, the ratio of temperature to salinity contributions to the refractive index spectrum, the rate of dissipation of mean-squared temperature, and the rate of dissipation of kinetic energy per unit mass of fluid. For the purpose of expressing the structure parameter of the anisotropic atmospheric turbulence in terms of atmospheric, oceanic anisotropic factors and the oceanic turbulence parameters, the spherical wave scintillation indices that are found in weak anisotropic atmospheric turbulence and in weak oceanic turbulence are equated to each other. We aim to utilize the structure parameter expressed in this paper in the evaluations of various physical entities such as the average intensity, scintillation index, and beam spread in anisotropic oceanic turbulence by exploiting the existing solutions for the same physical entities in anisotropic atmospheric turbulence. Use of this structure parameter will help us to obtain the anisotropic oceanic turbulence results easily because such results will be found by just inserting the structure parameter expressed in this paper to the already reported corresponding results of anisotropic atmospheric turbulence.

Laser echo signal amplification in a turbulent atmosphere

A lidar system for registration of laser return amplification in a turbulent atmosphere due to backscatter amplification effect is considered in this paper. In the system, two receiving channels are used. One of them (axial) coincides with the transmitter channel, while another channel (nonaxial) receives the backscattered radiation at a small angle to the probing beam axis. The power ratio of the echo signal recorded in the axial channel to that recorded in the nonaxial one is a measure of the return amplification. The results of long-duration lidar atmospheric experiments show that the power of the echo signal registered in the axial channel usually exceeds that in the nonaxial one.

Estimation of the refractive index structure characteristic of air from coherent Doppler wind lidar data

A technique is proposed for estimating the refractive index structure characteristic of air from data of a coherent Doppler wind lidar. The proposed technique is tested in atmospheric experiments. Time profiles of the structure characteristic in the atmospheric surface layer are obtained and compared with the time profiles of the dissipation rate of the kinetic energy of turbulence obtained from the same lidar data. It is shown in this way that coherent lidars can be used for investigating not only wind turbulence, but also temperature turbulence.

Experimental verification of the limits of optical channel intensity reciprocity

Optical data links through the atmosphere suffer from turbulence-induced signal scintillation. In a coaxially-symmetric bidirectional link scenario, the variations of the axial intensities at both ends are correlated. This relation can be used as an inherent feedback mechanism, with negligible delay, to enhance the capacity of the transmission system. By experiment, we show the correlation coefficient of both received signals can reach values close to one over long atmospheric distances, provided the receiver apertures are smaller than specific intensity speckle structures, while the correlation reduces gradually with larger apertures. This allows transmission capacity to be optimized with adaptive transceiver systems that take into account the degree of correlation.

Comment on "Heterodyne lidar returns in the turbulent atmosphere: performance evaluation of simulated systems"

The explanation proposed by Belmonte and Rye [Appl. Opt. 39, 2401 (2000)] for the difference between simulation and the zero-order theory for heterodyne lidar returns in a turbulent atmosphere is incorrect. The theoretical expansion the authors considered is not developed under a square-law structure-function approximation (random-wedge atmosphere). Agreement between the simulations and the zero-order term of the theoretical expansion is produced for the limit of statistically independent paths (bistatic operation with large transmitter-receiver separation) when the simulations correctly include the large-scale gradients of the turbulent atmosphere.