Turbulence Profile Measurement with a Dynamically Ranged Rayleigh Beacon

#TARDIS #tomographic #turbulence #estimation #methodology

The effect of turbulence on a long range imaging system manifest as an image blur effect usually quantified by the phase distortions present in a system. The blurring effect is conceivably understood on the basis of measured strength of atmospheric turbulence profiled within the propagation volume. One method for obtaining a turbulence strength profile is by use of a dynamically ranged Rayleigh beacon system that exploits strategically varied beacon ranges along the propagation path, effectively deducing estimates of specific path segment contribution of the blurring aberrations affecting an optical imaging system.

The TARDIS system was designed to utilize this technique and a prototype has been constructed for testing. This webinar will summarize TARDIS, the tomographic turbulence estimation methodology, and analysis of initial proof of concept data collected.