Recent advances in modeling of laser propagation through the earth's atmosphere

Recently, new theory governing laser beam scintillation was developed for all regimes of optical turbulence. This theory is based on the Rytov approximation but modified with a filter function that eliminates intermediate scale sizes that do not contribute to the refractive and diffractive effects of propagation. This modification extends the validity of the Rytov approximation into moderate to strong regimes as is evident by the agreement with experimental data. In this paper this scintillation theory is summarized and, new expressions governing phase fluctuations are,presented. The phase structure function is then compared with previous experimental data.