Wave optics simulation of atmospheric turbulence and reflective speckle effects in carbon dioxide lidar

Laser speckle can influence lidar measurements from a diffuse hard target. Atmospheric optical turbulence will also affect the lidar return signal. This investigation develops a numerical simulation that models the propagation of a lidar beam and accounts for both reflective speckle and atmospheric turbulence effects. The simulation, previously utilized to simulate the effects of atmospheric optical turbulence alone, is based on implementing a Huygens-Fresnel approximation to laser propagation. A series of phase screens, with the appropriate atmospheric statistical characteristics, is used to simulate the effect of atmospheric optical turbulence. A single random phase screen is used to simulate scattering of the entire beam from a rough surface. These investigations compare the output of the numerical model with separate CO₂ lidar measurements of atmospheric turbulence and reflective speckle. This work also compares the output of the model with separate analytical predictions for atmospheric turbulence and reflective speckle. Good agreement is found between the model and the experimental data. Good agreement is also found with analytical predictions. Additionally, results of simulation of the combined effects on a finite aperture lidar system show agreement with experimental observations of increasing RMS noise with increasing turbulence level and the behavior of the experimental integrated intensity probability distribution. Simulation studies are included that demonstrate the usefulness of the model, examine its limitations and provide greater insight into the process of combined atmospheric optical turbulence and reflective speckle. One highlight of these studies is examination of the limitations of the simulation that shows, in general, precision increases with increasing grid size. The study of the backscatter intensity enhancement predicted by analytical theory show it to behave as a multi-path effect, like scintillation, with the highest contributions from atmospheric optical turbulence weighted at the middle of the propagation path. Aperture geometry also affects the signal-to-noise ratio with thin annular apertures exhibiting lower RMS noise than circular apertures of the same active area. The simulation is capable of studying a variety of lidar schemes including varying atmospheric optical turbulence along the propagation path as well as diverse transmitter and receiver geometries.