The generation of filaments when a laser pulse propagates in the. atmospheric aerosol is numerically investigated. It is shown that interference intensity maxima in high-power pulses can become filament-generation centers when radiation is coherently scattered at aerosol particles. The extent to which the particles affect the generation of filaments in this case substantially depends on the particle size and the peak pulse power. A numerical analysis is carried out on the basis of a stratified model in which nonlinear-optical interaction of laser radiation with a disperse medium is represented as coherent scattering at a sequence of statistically independent "aerosol" screens, between which self-focusing occurs in a nonturbid air medium. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.
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