Refractive Turbulence Profiling via Binary Source Intensity Scintillation Correlation

摘要

This study examines the binary source correlation technique for determining vertical profiles of the refractive index structure parameter, (Cn)-sq. Theoretical intensity scintillation covariance functions and power spectra for atmospheric layers of depth delta(h) at a mean altitude of h are derived. These functions are related to the photoelectron counting statistics and the spatial covariance of photoelectron counts for binary point sources. A linear detector array in the exit pupil of an optical system is examined, and the effects of the detection process uncertainty are explored. A lower bound for the expected error of an experimental determination of the spatioangular covariance of counts is derived. This error is then minimized via at least squares analysis using the redundant information available in pairwise multiple correlations of a signal from the detector elements of a ten element linear array. The refractive index structure parameter profile is then derived and found to be the undetermined coefficients of the spatial covariance weighting functions in the least squares analysis. Keywords: Refractive turbulence profiles; Stellar scintillation; Photon counting statistics; Theses. (jhd)