Numerical Simulation Of Thermal Blooming In Atmospheric High Energy Laser Slant Propagation

The nonlinear thermal blooming of high-energy laser in the atmosphere has great effect on the quality of the laser beam; it also limits the power and brings adverse effects to the many engineering applications of laser. This paper investigates the thermal blooming effect in slant transmission, an applicable absorption model is used and various effects of laser in atmosphere are introduced. Thermal blooming equations are analyzed in detail using Maxwell equations and fluid equation, and the distortion parameter and threshold of the thermal blooming is introduced. Phase screen Fourier transform method is analyzed in detail, and parameter selection for the numerical computation is discussed. The numerical algorithm is examined by the comparison of the transmittance of 1.06μm,10.6μm laser beam slant propagation between the published paper. In the end, the thermal blooming of 3.8μm laser beam in slant path is simulated, and the influence factors, including wind speed, elevation angle, laser power, transmission distance, are discussed.