Abstract

Many aspects of detection systems confound measurements of strongly scintillating irradiance. Recent emphasis on predicting and measuring the moments of irradiance draws attention to extremely intense, improbable, and immeasurable events. We briefly review the effects of amplifier saturation and the attainable number of independent samples. We present recent experimental results on the aperture size and bandwidth needed to simulate a point receiver and instantaneous sampling. The approach to lognormality of aperture-averaged irradiance is noted. We present a history of the use of irradiance moments to verify theoretical models of the probability density of irradiance showing its fall, reemergence, and recent demise.

© 1988 Optical Society of America