<title>Differential-tilt technique for saturation-resistant profiling of atmospheric turbulence</title>

Abstract

A technique for profiling of C<SUB>n</SUB><SUP>2</SUP> over an atmospheric propagation path is proposed, developed and analyzed. The technique employs differential-tilt measurements to arrive at statistics which have unique weighting functions over the propagation path. These weighting functions are computed theoretically and used to derive a reconstructor matrix for C<SUB>n</SUB><SUP>2</SUP> values throughout the path to be applied to an appropriate set of differential-tilt statistics. A candidate optical system is presented, and the performance of the profile reconstructor is analyzed. This study indicates that the relative error in the C<SUB>n</SUB><SUP>2</SUP> estimates is approximately 5%. The relative error in estimating key atmospheric parameters such as the Fried parameter, isoplanatic angle, and the Rytov parameter from the reconstructed profiles is approximately 3%.