Abstract

An improved cube-corner shearing interferometer for measuring the MTF of atmospheric propagation paths and for making coherence measurements is described. The laboratory unit used in all the experiments described was operated satisfactorily on board a KC-135 jet aircraft. MTF data over a 13.3-km horizontal path near the ground, and through the atmosphere using star sources, have been compared with the MTF curves estimated by use of the Fried theory and published models for the atmospheric structure constant C_N. The MTF has been measured with laser sources between the wing tip and the skin of the KC-135 in flight, and through the boundary layer within 25 cm of the skin in daylight and at night. The main degradation to the seeing was found to be in the boundary layer within 25 cm of the skin outside the aircraft window.

© 1973 Optical Society of America

Analysis of a method for obtaining near-diffraction-limited information in the presence of atmospheric turbulence

D. Korff
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 63(8) 971-980 (1973)

Airborne laser-beam scintillation measurements at high altitudes*

Glen J. Morris
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 63(3) 263-270 (1973)

Flux density for ray propagation in geometrical optics*

Donald G. Burkhard and David L. Shealy
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 63(3) 299-304 (1973)

Interferometric technique for recording and restoring images degraded by unknown aberrations*

W. T. Rhodes and J. W. Goodman
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 63(6) 647-657 (1973)

Correlation measurements on the complex amplitude of stellar plane waves perturbed by atmospheric turbulence

C. Roddier and F. Roddier
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 63(6) 661-663 (1973)