A comparison of optical turbulence models

Abstract

The U.S. Navy has an interest in the use of laser systems for surface ships. Such systems must operate within a thin near-surface environment called the marine atmospheric surface layer. There exist substantial gradients in temperature and momentum within this layer which make turbulence a strong function of height. We are interested in robust and simple optical turbulence models that can be used to predict turbulence along near-horizontal paths. We discuss several different models that are based upon similarity theory, and we compare the models with field transmission data taken from both over-water and over-land propagation paths.