Wavefront propagation in turbulence: an unified approach to the derivation of angular correlation functions

A general expression of the spatial correlation functions of quantities related to the phase fluctuations of a wave that have propagated through the atmospheric turbulence are derived. A generalization of the method to integrand containing the product of an arbitrary number of hypergeometric functions is presented. The formalism is able to give the coefficients of phase-expansion functions orthogonal over an arbitrary circularly symmetric weighting function for an isotropic turbulence spectrum, as well as to describe the effect of the finite outer and inner scales of the turbulence and to describe the spherical propagation or to derive the effects of the analytical operators acting on the phase such as the derivatives of any order. The derivation of the generalized integrals with multiparameters is based on the Mellin transforms integration method.