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Updated: May 26, 2026

Surface Renewal: An Advanced Micrometeorological Method for Measuring and Processing Field-Scale Energy Flux Density Data
Published on: December 12, 2013
Probability density of irradiance fluctuations observed over terrestrial ranges
Rita Mahon1, Christopher I Moore, Harris R Burris
1Code 5654, Naval Research Laboratory, Overlook Ave, SW Washington, DC 20375, USA. rita.mahon@nrl.navy.mil
Abstract:
The irradiance fluctuations imposed on a laser beam that has propagated over horizontal terrestrial paths in the range of 2 to 24 km are compared to lognormal (LN) and gamma-gamma (GG) distributions. For the direct links reported here the irradiance fluctuations follow a LN distribution except in cases of weak turbulence, characterized by a scintillation index of less than 1 and a Fried parameter larger than the receiver aperture, in which case the GG distribution gives an improved fit. In very weak turbulence the difference between the two distributions is insignificant.
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