Outer scale effects on optical scintillation in the transition from focusing to saturation.

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

10-27-2025

Abstract

Recent works in optical scintillation have shown heuristic continuations of weak turbulence theory and asymptotic theory do not match with results of experimental or simulation campaigns. One possible source of these discrepancies is a failure to account for outer scale effects in asymptotic models. Experiment and theory suggest that a smaller outer scale should affect only the rate at which scintillation approaches the asymptote at high turbulence levels. Here, I present the results of a wave optics simulation campaign for a spherical wave source with a varied outer scale and compare the results to Extended Rytov Theory. I find that in contrast to theory a finite, von Karman outer scale plays a significant role in suppressing peak scintillation in the focusing regime and that this result is predicted both by simulation and theory. Similar to other works I find that heuristic theory under predicts scintillation in the focusing regime compared to theory when a finite outer scale is present.

Publication Title

Proceedings of SPIE the International Society for Optical Engineering

ISBN

[9781510692770]

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