The angle-of-arrival variance of optical waves propagating through turbulent atmosphere in the presence of random jitter

Dynamic wind loads, thermal expansion and other mechanical reasons cause optical platform mounts to sway. The sway distorts the alignment between transmitters and receivers, causing random pointing jitter, the outcome of which is the phase fluctuation of optical waves from the transmitter. Furthermore, atmospheric turbulence causes fluctuations in the phase of those optical waves. By using the extended Huygens–Fresnel principle, both phase fluctuations are considered and an analytic formulation for the angle-of-arrival variance of optical waves propagating through turbulent atmosphere in the presence of motion-induced pointing jitter is derived. The result shows that the angle-of-arrival variance of optical waves under the combined impact of motion-induced pointing jitter and atmospheric turbulence is the sum of the angle-of-arrival variances induced by them independently.