Measurements of folded path optical scintillation using a corner cube, a cat's eye and a flat mirror reflector.

Abstract

A theoretical prediction of the folded path weighting function for optical scintillation strength was made by Dr. Avihu Ze'evi. In an effort to verify this prediction, a sixty - one meter, enclosed turbulence chamber was built, allowing the position of a turbulence source to be moved and the scintillation strength measured at different path positions. This experiment tested the Ze'evi hypothesis using a corner cube, a cat's eye and a flat mirror and compared the results of each. The experimental results do not follow Dr. Ze'evi's theory. The general pattern of both the corner cube and the flat mirror have less weight at the detector end than predicted and more weight at the target end than predicted. The cat's eye scintillation followed the predicted weighting.