Optical scintillation in a maritime environment

Free space optical propagation affects many application areas, including communication, LIDAR, and directed energy. Optical turbulence causes dynamic changes in the propagated beam that can impact these applications. A primary measure of these effects is the optical scintillation index. In this work, we report on a comparison of experimental measurements of optical scintillation, conducted on a 16 km range across the Chesapeake Bay over a period of three months, to model predictions. Models for turbulence parameters were based on NAVSLaM, a Monin Obhukov similarity theory, and used environmental measurements taken on the range simultaneously with the scintillation measurements. These parameters were then used in two different classes of optical scintillation models: Extended Rytov theory, and wave optic simulation. We show that wave optics simulation matched the data much better than Extended Rytov theory, and that prediction of scintillation using environmental parameters is possible. In addition, we show that optical scintillation over water has different characteristics in stable versus unstable conditions.