Bending of a Ray in a Random Inhomogeneous Medium

摘要

When a wave propagates through a random, inhomogeneous medium, the random component of the refractive index affects not only the random component of the ray direction but also the mean component. Likewise, the mean component of the refractive index affects not only the mean component of the ray direction, but also the random component. This report derives equations based on a perturbation expansion that can be used to calculate the mean and random component of the ray direction in a medium in which the mean and random component of the refractive index vary arbitrarily in three dimensions. The equations are suitable for numerical integration in a ray tracing program.