Abstract
The effect of atmospheric turbulence on a focused laser beam has been evaluated experimentally using a diode array. A proposed model for the calculation of the turbulence-induced beam radius is compared with other available models and is found to yield better agreement with the measured beam radii at different ranges. The turbulence-induced beam radius is then used in the scaling law of a laser time-of-flight velocimeter for performance evaluation. Although the different turbulence models have little effect on the aerosol distribution constant β, which is determined from the scaling law, the proposed model predicts a signal particle arrival rate comparable with the experimental values at a range of 500 m, suggesting that practical long-range (500–1000-m) wind-speed measurements using a cw visible laser are feasible.
© 1984 Optical Society of America
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