THEORY OF IRRADIANCE DISTRIBUTION FUNCTION IN TURBULENT MEDIA

Abstract

The irradiance distribution function of light-waves propagated through turbulent media has been investigated both experimentally and theoretically by many authors, but no successful theoretical attempt has been made to account for the experimental fact ^<1-3> that the irradiance distribution is close to the Gaussian distribution with respect to the logarithm of irradiance even in the region where the variance of irradiance scintillation is saturated. In this paper, a cluster approximation is applied to the solutions of moment equation of 4th and higher orders to express those moments in terms of the lower order ones and the irradiance distribution function is analytically derived based on the obtained expression of moment of irradiance for various orders.