Horizontal atmospheric turbulence, beam propagation, and modeling

The turbulent effect from the Earth’s atmosphere degrades the performance of an optical imaging system. Many studies have been conducted in the study of beam propagation in a turbulent medium. Horizontal beam propagation and correction presents many challenges when compared to vertical due to the far harsher turbulent conditions and increased complexity it induces. We investigate the collection of beam propagation data, analysis, and use for building a mathematical model of the horizontal turbulent path and the plans for an adaptive optical system to use this information to correct for horizontal path atmospheric turbulence.