Influence of the atmospheric turbulence on the laser beam

Abstract

Free space optical (FSO) communication links offer a number of advantages over radio frequency links. Main advantages of FSO communication links are electromagnetic compatibility, license-free band and high data rate. However, reliability of these links is highly dependent on atmospheric and weather conditions. An optical wave propagating through the atmospheric transmission media is very sensitive on variety of atmospheric effects, e.g. beam wander, fluctuation of optical intensity and loss of spatial coherence. The purpose of this paper is to present the measurement of the distribution of the relative optical intensity variance in the Gaussian beam. The measurement of the spatial coherence is also presented.