Empirical Study of the Underwater Turbulence Effect on Non-Coherent Light

Abstract

This letter presents an experimental study comparing the relative impact of turbulence induced scattering on coherent and non-coherent light propagating through water. It is shown that the scintillation index increases with increasing temperature inhomogeneity in the underwater channel. Our results indicate that a light beam from a non-coherent source has a greater resilience to temperature inhomogeneity induced turbulence effect in an underwater channel. These results will help researchers in simulating realistic channel conditions when modelling a light emitting diode (LED) based intensity modulation with direct detection (IM/DD) underwater optical wireless communication (UOWC) link.