Turbulence-induced edge image waviness: theory and experiment

A theoretical model for the edge image waviness effect is developed for the ground-to-ground imaging scheme and validated by use of IR imagery data collected at the White Sands Missile Range. It is shown that angle-of-arrival (AA) angular anisoplanatism causes the phenomenon of edge image waviness and that the AA correlation scale, not the isoplanatic angle, characterizes the edge image waviness scale. The latter scale is determined by the angular size of the imager and a normalized atmospheric outer scale, and it does not depend on the strength of turbulence along the path. Spherical divergence of the light waves increases the edge waviness scale. A procedure for estimating the atmospheric and camera-noise components of the edge image motion is developed and implemented. A technique for mitigation of the edge image waviness that relies on averaging the effects of AA anisoplanatism on the image is presented and validated. The edge waviness variance is reduced by a factor of 2-3. The time history and temporal power spectrum of the edge image motion are obtained. These data confirm that the observed edge image motion is caused by turbulence.