Temporal coherence of individual turbulent patterns in atmospheric seeing

Abstract

We used a variation of the generalized scidar (scintillation detection and ranging) technique to examine the temporal coherence of turbulent patterns at different altitudes in the atmosphere above Palomar Observatory. This enables us to test the validity of a frozen turbulence hypothesis in the local reference frame of the moving atmosphere. The data set analyzed here contains three turbulent patterns, each at a different altitude, which remain internally coherent over time scales of 0.28-0.41 s. This measurement is significant, because it is made on a 5-m aperture, allowing moving patterns to be tracked over time scales longer than their own lifetimes.