Investigation of inhomogeneity and anisotropy in near ground layers of atmospheric air turbulence using image motion monitoring method

In this work the anisotropy and inhomogeneity of real atmospheric turbulence have been investigated using image motion monitoring and differential image motion monitoring methods. For this purpose the light beam of a point source is propagated through the atmospheric turbulence layers in horizontal path and then impinged to a telescope aperture. The telescope and point source were 350 m apart. In front of the telescope's aperture a mask consisting of four subapertures was installed. Image of the point source was formed on a sensitive CCD camera located at the focal plane of the telescope. By displacing CCD camera along the axis of telescope, four distinct images were recorded. Angle of arrival (AA) of each spot was calculated by image processing. Air turbulence causes AA to fluctuate. By comparing AA fluctuation variances of different spots in two directions isotropy and homogeneity of turbulence were studied. Results have shown that atmospheric turbulence in near ground layers is treated as an anisotropic and inhomogeneous medium. In addition, the inhomogeneity and anisotropy of turbulence decreases with the distance from earth surface.