Pulsed beam propagation through random media

The effect of the turbulent atmosphere on the propagation of an ultrashort pulsed beam is presented in terms of time-domain statistical moment equations. Pulsed beams are localized space-time solutions of the wave equation that propagate unchanged along the ray trajectories. The statistically closed equations that are derived are considerably different from the dispersive multiple-frequency equation that is often used for pulse propagation. It is shown that the coherent intensity of the pulsed beam decays on a scale of the order of 10(-3) -10(3) m, depending on the conditions of turbulence. This underscores the importance of the statistical feasibility of propagation in addition to the practical realizability, which is customarily emphasized.