Scintillation

About: Scintillation is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 14022 publications have been published within this topic receiving 187694 citations.

Optical Turbulence Profiles at Mauna Kea Measured by MASS and SCIDAR

Abstract: The vertical distribution of turbulence over Mauna Kea has been measured on four nights in 2002 October, simultaneously using two different instruments based on stellar scintillation—the generalized SCIDAR (scintillation detection and ranging) and MASS (multiaperture scintillation sensor). The turbulence integrals match within 20%, and the low-resolution profiles delivered by MASS correctly reveal the localization of the strongest high-altitude turbulent layers. As deduced from DIMM (differential image motion monitor), MASS, and SCIDAR measurements, optical turbulence in the first 0.7 km above the summit contributed typically half of the total integral, the latter corresponding to a seeing of 0 .5. The ground layer and free atmosphere are not correlated.

Inner-scale effect on irradiance variance measured for weak-to-strong atmospheric scintillation

Abstract: Experimental results are described of measurements of irradiance fluctuations of laser radiation through atmospheric turbulence Simultaneous measurements of irradiance fluctuations, inner scale, and structure parameter were made in conditions of homogeneous turbulence during a number of summer days, from very early in the morning, before sunrise, until approximately noon During the measurements the turbulence strength varied continuously, spanning very low as well as intermediate and very high levels We used the data collected in selected intervals, during which turbulence was stationary, to obtain plots of irradiance variance versus the structure parameter for fixed ranges of values of the inner scale The results clearly show the effect of the inner scale For a given value of the structure parameter larger inner scales result in larger values of irradiance variance in the regime of strong scintillation