Displacements of a spatially limited light beam in the slant path of oceanic turbulence

Abstract

The new oceanic power spectrum of refractive-index of optical turbulent fluctuations in slant path is developed by oceanic temperature structure parameters with depth under weak wind and strong wind conditions. Based on the proposed oceanic power spectrum in slant channel, the analytical expression of the displacement variance of Gaussian beam propagation in slant oceanic turbulent channel is derived. Then the influence of oceanic turbulent parameters in slant path on the beam displacement is investigated. It’s shown that oceanic turbulence in slant path with small inner scale, low ratio of temperature and salinity contributions, large tidal velocity and wind speed leads to small beam displacement. For a sufficiently large receiver radius, Gaussian beam with large initial beam radius propagating at large zenith angle can cause small beam displacement in slant path of oceanic turbulence.