The Starfire Optical Range has measured atmospheric scintillation on 1.06 micron laser beams propagated from the ground to retroreflectors on satellites and back to the ground. The primary purpose of this experiment was to examine upward scintillation on laser beams, especially the results of varying the number of beams and their diameters. Separating the energy into beams that sample different portions of the atmosphere reduces the scintillation if the atmospheric turbulence each traverses is independent. How much the beam diameter affects scintillation is determined by diffraction and the size of the Fried parameter.
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