Renewed interest in laser communication systems has sparked development of useful new analytic models. This book discusses optical scintillation and its impact on system performance in free-space optical communication and laser radar applications, with a detailed look at propagation phenomena and the role of scintillation on system behavior. Intended for practicing engineers, scientists, and students.

Since publication of the first edition of this text in 1998, there have been several new, important developments in the theory of beam wave propagation through a random medium, which have been incorporated into this second edition. Also new to this edition are models for the scintillation index under moderate-to-strong irradiance fluctuations; models for aperture averaging based on ABCD ray matrices; beam wander and its effects on scintillation; theory of partial coherence of the source; models of rough targets for ladar applications; phase fluctuations; analysis of other beam shapes; plus...

This research monograph is a companion edition and update to the book: L. C. Andrews and R. L. Phillips, Laser Beam Propagation through Random Media, 2nd edition (SPIE Press, 2005). We present several new and advanced topics that have emerged during the years since the 2005 title was published. Much of the new material is compared throughout the text with experimental and computer simulation data. This comparison includes beam wander and its effect on a propagating laser beam, including beam-wander-induced scintillation. Other additions include an assessment of conventional probability...