Abstract

An analysis is presented describing the interactions of atmospheric aerosols with a high-intensity laser beam propagating along an atmospheric path. For the case of moderate beam irradiances, diffusive mass transport and conductive energy transport dominate the aerosol-beam interactions. In this regime, the coupled aerosol-beam equations are solved numerically to obtain the spatiotemporal behavior of the propagating beam and of the irradiated aerosol. For higher beam irradiances, convective transport of mass, energy, and momentum away from the irradiated aerosols must be considered. Numerical examples illustrative of both regimes are given for the case of irradiated water aerosol droplets. The energy balance equation allows us to compute the conversion of the pulse energy into temperature increase, vaporization, conduction, and convection. In addition, we include the droplet radius shrinking with time, as recently discussed by Davies and Brock.¹

© 1987 Optical Society of America