Phase correlations of a strongly scintillating light wave propagating through a turbulent medium

We investigate analytically and numerically correlation functions of the phase of light waves that propagate through turbulent media. We examine the case of strong scintillations that occur at large values of the Rytov dispersion σ_{R}^{2}, which determines a level of distortions of the light wave. Then, it is possible to relate the pair correlation function of phase gradients to the known pair correlation function of the envelope dependent on the distance r assuming Gaussianity of the envelope of the beam. Our direct numerical simulations show that the profile of the pair correlation function for phase gradients gradually approaches the theoretical expression as the value of σ_{R}^{2} increases, if r