Abstract

The perturbation of both the spatial and temporal behavior of an optical wave propagating through a random medium is modeled as a Gaussian fluctuating process. We assume the wave has a space-time separable correlation function. We then expand the spatial fluctuations as an orthonormal series over the receiver aperture. Each term of the series represents a single spatial mode. Each of the spatial modes can be expanded as a temporal orthonormal series over the Integration time of the detector. Since the fluctuations of the entire wave are taken to be Gaussian, the coefficients of each term in the space-time series are also Gaussian. If each function within the two series expansions is an eigenfunction of its respective correlation function, the random Gaussian coefficients of the functions are independent.

© 1986 Optical Society of America