"Scaling Laws for the Noise-equivalent Angle and C-tilt, G-tilt Anisopl" by Eric W. Mitchell, Derek J. Burrell et al. 10.1364/AO.553861">
 

Scaling Laws for the Noise-equivalent Angle and C-tilt, G-tilt Anisoplanatism Due to Scintillation

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-10-2025

Abstract

In this paper, we derive single-integral solutions, applicable in the weak-to-moderate scintillation regime, for both the noise equivalent angle (NEA) due to scintillation and the scintillation-induced root mean squared error (RMSE) between gradient tilt (G-tilt) and centroid tilt (C-tilt). In practice, the NEA due to scintillation gives a measure of the scintillation-induced track error, whereas the scintillation-induced RMSE between C-tilt and G-tilt gives a measure of the C-tilt, G-tilt anisoplanatism due to scintillation. Assuming spherical-wave propagation, we fit closed-form expressions to the numerically integrated solutions. These closed-form expressions serve as “scaling laws,” and we validate their use with wave-optics simulations. At large, we determine that the one-axis NEA due to scintillation scales as a function of aperture size, propagation distance, wavelength, and Rytov number, whereas the one-axis scintillation-induced RMSE between C-tilt and G-tilt scales proportionally to the Rytov number when normalized by the diffraction angle. These findings will aid in the design of active electro-optical systems, which inevitably experience the effects of scintillation when imaging through distributed-volume turbulence.

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This article is part of the Applied Optics Institutional Focus Issue of Applied Optics, Air Force Institute of Technology

Source Publication

Applied Optics (ISSN 1559-128X | eISSN 2155-3165)

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