Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
The report presents a general simplified prescription for estimation of the beamspread of a laser beam propagating in a turbulent medium. Simple analytic approximations are presented. These permit estimation of beamspread and antenna gain without the detailed numerical calculations associated with an arbitrary wavefront in an aperture. The physical significance of these results is discussed. Finally, recent experimental data for the atmospheric temperature structure constant profile are presented and used for estimation of the turbulence-induced beamspread and mean on-axis power loss of an upwardly propagating, 0.53-micrometer beam. (Author)
H. T. Yura (1971) studied this question.