Fade statistics and aperture averaging for Gaussian beam

waves in moderate-to-strong turbulence

Frida Strmqvist Vetelino,* Cynthia Young, and Larry Andrews

Department of Mathematics, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida 32816, USA
*Corresponding author: fstromqu@ucf.edu

Received 16 October 2006; revised 8 February 2007; accepted 11 February 2007;

posted 13 February 2007 (Doc. ID 76103); published 31 May 2007

The performance of lasercom systems operating in the atmosphere is reduced by optical turbulence, which
causes irradiance fluctuations in the received signal. The result is a randomly fading signal. Fade
statistics obtained from experimental data were compared to theoretical predictions based on the log-
normal and gamma gamma distributions. The probability of fade, the expected number of fades per
second, and the mean fade time were calculated from the irradiance fluctuations of a Gaussian beam wave
propagating through the atmosphere along a horizontal path, near ground, in the moderate-to-strong
optical turbulence regime. Irradiance data were collected simultaneously at three receiving apertures,
each with a different size. Atmospheric propagation parameters were inferred from the measurements
and were used in calculations for the theoretical distributions. It was found that fade predictions made
by the gamma gamma and lognormal distributions provide an upper and lower bound, respectively, for
the probability of fade and the number of fades per second for the irradiance data collected in the
moderate-to-strong fluctuation regime. What is believed to be a new integral expression for the expected
number of fades based on the gamma gamma distribution was developed. This new expression tracked
the gamma gamma distributed data more closely than the existing approximation and resulted in a
higher number of fades. 2007 Optical Society of America
OCIS codes: 010.1300, 010.1330, 290.5930.

1. Introduction mean fade time. The theoretical expressions for the

When a lasercom system is operating in the atmo-
sphere, turbulence induced scintillation results in
power losses at the receiver, which can cause the re-
ceived signal to fade below a prescribed threshold level.
The incoming signal will fade randomly, since the ir-
radiance of an optical field propagating though the
atmosphere is a random, fluctuating quantity. Fade
statistics can be used to predict the performance of free
space optics systems for various atmospheric condi-
tions. The probability of fade, also known as the frac-
tional fade time or the probability of miss, serves as an
estimate of how likely the detector output is to drop
below the threshold. The probability density function
(PDF) of the irradiance fluctuations is needed in order
to predict the probability of fade for a lasercom system.
Other fade statistics of interest include the expected
number of fades below threshold per second and their
0003-6935/07/183780-10$15.00/0
2007 Optical Society of America
two latter quantities require the joint PDF of the fluc-
tuating irradiance and its time derivative. It is desir-
able to work with mathematical models of the PDF of
the randomly fading irradiance signal that have sim-
ple, closed-form expressions and whose parameters
are directly related to atmospheric parameters. The
lognormal (LN) and gamma gamma (GG) distribu-
tions fulfill these requirements.
This work includes experimental data [1] of a
slightly diverged Gaussian beam wave propagating
horizontally, near ground, in the moderate-to-strong
regime of optical turbulence. Irradiance data was col-
lected simultaneously at three receivers of different
size. Fade statistics obtained from the experimental
data were compared to theoretical predictions made
with the LN and GG PDFs, for both moderate and
strong irradiance fluctuations and for all three receiv-
ing aperture sizes. This work is an extension of a
study of the PDF of the irradiance fluctuations of the
experimental data, which was found to vary between
the GG and LN distributions for different receiver

3780 APPLIED OPTICS Vol. 46, No. 18 20 June 2007

aperture sizes and turbulence strengths [2]. The
same behavior is expected to be seen in the fade
statistics of the experimental data.
Previous work on fade statistics was first done pri-
marily for uplink and downlink communications with
satellites [3 8], but more recently also for horizontal
scribed threshold. When the signal-to-noise ratio
(SNR) at the output of the detector is sufficiently
high, the noise contribution to the fading issues can
be neglected. In this case, the probability of fade is
given by [13]

propagation paths [9 12]. Most recent work involves IT
the theoretical comparisons of fade statistics based Pfa PrI IT pIIdI, (1)
on the LN and GG distributions [79,11]. Some stud-
0
ies contain comparisons between theoretical predic-
tions of fade statistics and experimental data [10,12]. where IT is the threshold level of the irradiance and
One challenge when comparing experimental data pII is the PDF of the irradiance fluctuations. Rather
with theory is to accurately characterize the propa- than expressing the probability of fade as a function
gation path. In this work, the path average values of of IT, the fade threshold parameter, FT, is introduced.
the structure parameter, Cn2, as well as the inner, l0, FT is defined as the number of decibels below the
and outer, L0, scales of turbulence, were inferred from mean irradiance [13]
the experimental measurements by using scintilla-

tion theory combined with a numerical algorithm [1].
I0, L
The inferred atmospheric parameters were used with FT 10 log10
IT dB, (2)
existing scintillation theory [1316] to calculate the
parameters of the LN and GG distributions.
Most previous work on fade statistics focuses on where I0, L is the mean value of the on-axis por-
the probability of fade. Only a few studies include the tion of the irradiance of a Gaussian beam wave. This
expected number of fades per second or the mean fade work involves normalized (on-axis) irradiance data,
time [3 6,9,11], in which predictions made with the I0, L 1.
GG distribution are based on an approximation of
the joint PDF of a GG distributed irradiance and its 1. Lognormal Distribution
time derivative [9,11]. In this paper, a new integral A lognormally distributed normalized irradiance
expression for the expected number of fades per sec- I 1 is described by [13]
ond, based on an exact integral form of the joint PDF,

was developed for the GG distribution. The purpose 1 2

was to evaluate the existing approximation and to lnI 2

1 2 ln I
obtain an exact expression for the expected number of pII exp , I 0,
fades for GG distributed irradiance. I2ln I2 2ln I2
(3)
2. Background

A. Probability Density Function Models and Aperture
Averaging
Several different modulations of two PDFs, or doubly
stochastic processes, have been proposed as the distri-
bution function for the irradiance fluctuations associ-
ated with a small (point) aperture receiver. The GG
distribution [1719] is supported by simulation data in
where ln I2 is the log-irradiance variance, which is
the parameter of the LN PDF. An analytical expres-
sion for the probability of fade for a lognormally dis-
tributed (on-axis) irradiance of a Gaussian beam
wave is obtained by inserting the lognormal PDF, Eq.
(3), into Eq. (1), which yields [13]

weak, moderate, and strong irradiance fluctuations for
point receivers [19]. In the moderate-to-strong turbu-
lence regime, some previous experimental studies in-
volving larger, finite-sized, receiving apertures [20,21]
indicate that receiver-aperture-averaged irradiance is
lognormal for sufficiently large apertures. A recent
study [2] with the same experimental data used in this
paper, as well as simulation data, showed that the GG
distribution provides a good fit to the irradiance fluc-
tuations collected by finite-sized apertures that are
significantly smaller than the coherence radius, 0, in
the moderate-to-strong fluctuation regime. For aper-
tures larger than or equal to the coherence radius, the
irradiance fluctuations are lognormally distributed.
B. Probability of Fade
The probability of fade serves as an estimate of how
likely the detector output is to drop below a pre-
1
2 0.23FT
1 2 ln I
Pfa 1 erf , (4)
2 2ln I
where erf(x) is the error function. The log-irradiance
variance is related to the scintillation index, I2, by
the relation [13]
ln I2 lnI2 1, (5)
where ln is the natural logarithm. In weak turbu-
lence ln I2 is approximately equal to I2. In the
moderate-to-strong fluctuation regime it is important
to use the relation in Eq. (5). Recently developed
scintillation theory [1316], valid in all regimes of
turbulence and where the scintillation index depends

20 June 2007 Vol. 46, No. 18 APPLIED OPTICS 3781

on the strength of turbulence and the inner and outer
scales of turbulence, is used to calculate ln I2 for the
LN distribution. As a result, the parameter in the LN
distribution is directly related to the atmospheric pa-
rameters l0, L0, and Cn2. For a Gaussian beam wave,
the relations are found in Refs. 1 and 13.
2. GammaGamma Distribution
The GG distribution for the irradiance is obtained by
a modulation between the small-scale irradiance, y,
and the large-scale irradiance, x, [13,19]
I xy,
rameters in the GG distribution directly to the atmo-
spheric parameters l0, L0, and Cn2.
C. Expected Number of Fades Per Second and Their
Mean Fade Time
The expected number of fades per second is equal to
the number of negative crossings below a specified
threshold level. When the SNR at the output of the
detector is sufficiently high, the noise contribution to
the expected number of fades can be neglected. In this
case the expected number of fades per second is given
by [13]
(6)

1
where x and y are assumed to be gamma distributed nIT I pI,I IT, IdI, (11)
and statistically independent. This modulation re- 2

sults in the GG distribution [13,19]
where pI, I I, I is the joint PDF of the irradiance, I,
2 and its time derivative, I. For any irradiance distri-
pII I2K2I I 0,
I
(7) bution, the joint PDF can be written as

where I is the normalized irradiance, x is the pI,I I, I pIIpI II, (12)

gamma function, and Kx is the modified Bessel
function of the second kind. and are the param-
eters of the PDF, which represent the effective
numbers of large-scale and small-scale scatterers,
respectively. An analytical expression for the proba-
bility of fade for a GG distributed irradiance is ob-
tained by inserting the GG PDF, Eq. (7), into Eq. (1),
which results in [13]
Pfa
sin expected number of fades per second [13]
where pII is the PDF of the irradiance, and pI II is
the conditional PDF for its time derivative. If the
irradiance and its time derivative are statistically
independent, the conditional PDF for I reduces to its
unconditional PDF pI I.
The mean fade time represents the average time at
which the irradiance stays below the prescribed
threshold level of the irradiance, IT. It is calculated by
taking the ratio of the probability of fade and the

1
exp0.23FT
PrI IT
1 F2; 1, 1; exp0.23FT tIT . (13)
nIT

exp0.23FT
1 1. Lognormal Distribution

1F2; 1, 1; exp0.23FT , The joint PDF of a lognormally distributed normal-

ized irradiance and its time derivative is given by the
expression [13]
(8)

1 2
where 1F2a; c1, c2; x is a generalized hypergeometric lnI 2
function. The and parameters are identified as 1 2 ln I
pI,I I, I exp
the inverse of the large-scale scintillation, x2, and Iln I2 2ln I2

small-scale scintillation, y2, respectively [13,19],
1 I2
exp , I 0, (14)
1 1 2bI2 8b2I2
, (9)
x2 expln x2 1
where b is the standard deviation of the time deriv-
1 1 ative of a Gaussian random process. The first part of
, (10)
y2 expln y2 1 the expression is the lognormal PDF, Eq. (3), while
the remainder is the conditional PDF of I. It is a
where ln x2 and ln y2 are the large-scale and small- zero-mean Gaussian distribution with the variance
scale log-irradiance variances. Recently developed depending on the irradiance I. The expected number
scintillation theory [1316], is used to relate the pa- of fades below the threshold for a lognormally distrib-

3782 APPLIED OPTICS Vol. 46, No. 18 20 June 2007

uted irradiance is obtained by inserting Eq. (14) into tically independent large-scale, x, and small-scale, y,
Eq. (11), which results in [13] irradiances. Hence the irradiance and its time deriv-
ative becomes

1 2
2 0.23FT I xy, I xy xy,
2 ln I (19)
nFT 0 exp 2 , (15)
2ln I
where x and y are assumed to be gamma distributed
and normalized x y 1. Consequently, x and x,
where 0 is the quasi-frequency, defined as [13]
as well as y and y, follow the joint PDF of a gamma
random process and its time derivative [13],

0
b

1
ln I 2

Bln I 0
Bln I0
Hz , (16)
px,xx, x
1 32 x x28xb 2
x e e x
, x 0,
8bx2
where Bln I is the covariance function of the log- (20)
irradiance. Bln I is the second derivative of the co-
variance function with respect to . 1 32 y y28yb 2
py,yy, y y e e y
, y 0,
2. Approximation of the Expected Number of Fades 8by2
for a GammaGamma Distributed Irradiance (21)
Previous work involving the joint PDF of a GG dis-
tributed irradiance and its time derivative are based
where bx and by are the standard deviations of the
on an approximation of the conditional PDF for I. The time derivative of Gaussian random processes asso-
functional form of the conditional PDF for I is un- ciated with the large-scale and small-scale irradi-
known, but it reduces to a zero-mean Gaussian PDF ances, respectively. For simplification of the model,
if either or . Consequently, an approx- the approximation bx2 by2 b22 is made. The joint
imation to the joint PDF for a GG distributed nor- PDF of I and I can be formulated in different ways.
malized irradiance and its time derivative is given One approach is to take the 2D inverse Fourier trans-
by [13] form of the two dimensional characteristic function,

pI,I I, I pIIpI II

eiuIvIpI,II, IdIdI

2 I,Iu, v
I2K2I
I

1 I2 expiuxy vxy xypx,xx, x

exp , I 0. (17)
8b I2 8Ib2
py,yy, ydxdxdydy

Note that Eq. (17) is exact if either or . 1
x32ex y32eyeiuxy
The expected number of fades below the threshold 4b2
0 0

for a GG distributed normalized irradiance with a
Gaussian approximated conditional distribution for
ex
24b2x
ey
24b2y
its time derivative is obtained by inserting Eq. (17) eivyx eivxydydxdydx.
into Eq. (11), which gives [13]
(22)
20ln I2 1
nFT exp0.23FT 2 The last two integrals in Eq. (22) are solved by com-
pleting the square in the exponent with respect to x
and y, respectively. This yields
K2 exp0.23FT, (18)

1 x
where 0 is the quasi-frequency, defined in Eq. (16). I,I u, v x e y1

0 0
3. New Theory
expy iuxy b2v2x2y y2xdydx.
A. Integral Expression for the Expected Number of Fades (23)
for a GammaGamma Distributed Irradiance
The joint PDF of a GG distributed irradiance and its Taking the inverse Fourier transform of the charac-
time derivative is obtained by modulating the statis- teristics function gives

20 June 2007 Vol. 46, No. 18 APPLIED OPTICS 3783


three germanium photodiodes of 1, 5, and 13 mm in
1
pI,I I, I eiIuIvI,I u, vdudv

diameter. The detectors were mounted on a tripod,
22 positioned 2.2 m. above ground, and the signal was

captured with a sampling rate of 10 kHz. Great cau-
1 x tion was taken to avoid clipping in the received
x e y1ey
irradiance data. Data were taken in 5 min intervals,

0 0 and the background radiation was measured before

1 and after each run. During the data collection, the
eiIvexpb2x2y y2xv2dv weather ranged from full sunshine to mostly sunny,
2
with air temperatures in the range 18 C27 C and

wind speeds between 0 and 7 ms (cross wind speed
1
eiIueixyudu dydx. (24) 05 ms). A more detailed description of the experi-
2 ment is found in Ref. 1.

Known Fourier transform relations solve the inte- B. Data Analysis

grals over u and v. The integral over y is then solved
by applying the properties of the Dirac delta function.
As a result, the integral expression of the joint PDF of
a GG distributed (normalized) irradiance and its time
derivative becomes
The probability of fade and the expected number of
fades per second were determined for each receiver
aperture for 5 min intervals of collected data as a func-
tion of the fade threshold parameter, FT. To obtain the
true experimental irradiance, the background noise

was subtracted from each data point. The back-
1 x12 ground noise was estimated to be the mean value of
pI,I I, I I32
4b2 0
I x2 the background measurement taken before and after
each 5 min interval of collected data. The normalized

exp x
I
x
2
I2x
4b II x2
dx. (25)
irradiance was obtained by dividing each corrected
data point by the 5 min average of the corrected data.
The probability of fade below the threshold was cal-
culated by counting the number of normalized irra-
The result in Eq. (25) has been confirmed by calcu- diance data points below IT exp0.23 FT and
lating pI,I I, I with alternative methods such as the dividing that number by the total number of data
Jacobian of transformation or using conditional points in the time interval (3 106). The expected
PDFs. number of fades per second was obtained by calculat-
The expected number of fades below the threshold ing the number of times the normalized irradiance
for a GG distributed normalized irradiance is ob- fell below the threshold and dividing that number by
tained by inserting Eq. (25) into Eq. (11). Solving the the number of seconds in the time interval (300). The
integral over I and using the definition of the quasi- mean fade time of the experimental data was deter-
frequency, 0, in Eq. (16) yields mined by dividing the probability of fade at each
threshold level by the corresponding value of the ex-

pected number of fades per second.
ln I0 To compare the fade statistics obtained from the
nIT IT12
x32IT x2
experimental data with theory, the atmospheric con-
ditions along the propagation path are required. Opti-

0
IT cal measurements, in combination with a scintillation
exp x dx. (26) theory for a Gaussian beam wave developed by An-
x
drews et al. [13,16] were used to infer the refractive
nFT is obtained by inserting the relation IT index structure parameter, Cn2, the inner scale of tur-
exp0.23FT into Eq. (26). bulence, l0, and the outer scale of turbulence, L0,
along the propagation path [1]. The scintillation in-
4. Experimental Data dex was measured for the same 5 min of experimental
data used to calculate the fade statistics, at each
A. Experiment receiving aperture (1, 5, and 13 mm diameter). The
The experiment was conducted during February experimental scintillation index from the three aper-
711, 2005, at a laser range located near Adelaide, tures and theoretical scintillation expressions were
South Australia. The terrain was dry grassland. A cw used to create a minimization problem for the atmo-
laser operating at 1550 nm was launched horizon- spheric parameters. It was solved numerically with
tally into free space via a 45 mm diameter collimator, an algorithm called the downhill Simplex method [1].
mounted 2.1 m above ground. The transmitted power Two sets of 5 min intervals of experimental data,
was approximately 22 dBm 150 mW, and the beam collected at 8:47 a.m.8:52 a.m. and 2:16 p.m.2:21
divergence was measured to be 0.46 mrad (full angle). p.m. on 11 February 2005, are presented in this pa-
After propagating 1500 m along a horizontal path per. The inferred atmospheric parameters for the
through the atmosphere, the beam was detected by first data set were Cn2 6.5 1014, l0 6.1 mm, and

3784 APPLIED OPTICS Vol. 46, No. 18 20 June 2007

L0 1.3 m, and for the second data set Cn2 4.6
1013, l0 4.6 mm, and L0 1.1 m. These values
were used to calculate the and parameters in the
GG distribution and ln I2 in the LN distribution by
using expressions from the scintillation theory for a
Gaussian beam wave presented in Refs. 1 and 13.
To calculate the theoretical values of the expected
number of fades per second and their mean fade time,
the quasi-frequency, 0, of the experimental data is
required. If the experimental mean transverse wind
speed, V, is known, the quasi-frequency can be ob-
tained from the covariance function of the log-
irradiance fluctuations, Bln I, by applying Taylors
frozen hypothesis of turbulence. To calculate the
quasi-frequency for receiving apertures of finite
size, aperture averaging theory has to be applied to
the covariance function. Owing to the complexity of
the calculations, an estimate of the quasi-frequency
for a Gaussian beam wave was obtained by inserting
the covariance function of an infinite plane wave,
valid for all regimes of turbulence but ignoring inner
and outer scale effects [22], into the definition of 0 in
Eq. (16). The resulting expression for the quasi-
frequency is directly proportional to V. The mean
crosswind speed was measured to be 0 and 2.8 ms
for the two experimental cases, respectively. A non-
zero value of the crosswind speed is required in order
to apply Taylors frozen hypothesis of turbulence. In
the first set of data, the crosswind speed was set to
2 ms in order to obtain an estimate of 0.
5. Comparisons of Theoretical and Experimental Fade
Statistics
The inferred path average values of the atmospheric
parameters (Cn2, l0, and L0) are shown in Table 1. The
Rytov variance, R2 1.23Cn2 k76L116, where k is the
wavenumber and L is the propagation distance, is
provided since it is a commonly used turbulence pa-
rameter. The first 5 min interval of experimental
data was collected in moderate turbulence strength
with Cn2 6.5 1014, and R2 2.7, while the
second case of data was measured in strong turbu-
lence with Cn2 4.6 1013, and R2 19.2. The
parameter values used to determine the theoretical
fade statistics, calculated with scintillation theory for
Gaussian beam waves and the inferred atmospheric
parameters, are also displayed in Table 1. The and
Table 1. Atmospheric Parameters Inferred From the Experimental Data and the PDF Parameters Used to Calculate the Lognormal and
GammaGamma Distributions When Compared to the Experimental Data
CASE I:
2 2
Atmospheric Cn l0 L0
Parameter: m23 (mm) (m)
14
6.5 10 6.1 1.3
PDF Parameter: I2 ln I2
1 mm aperture 1.87 2.07 1.28 0.83
5 mm aperture 1.89 2.12 1.25 0.81
13 mm aperture 2.05 2.45 1.10 0.74
parameters were used to obtain the fade statistics
based on the GG distribution. The ln I2 values were
used when calculating the fade results based on the
LN PDF. (As shown in Table 1, the weak turbulence
approximation I2 ln I2 does not hold, so is impor-
tant to use the ln I2 values for the lognormal PDF).
The calculated values of the quasi-frequency, 0, are
also shown in Table 1.
A comparison between the probability of fade ob-
tained from the experimental data and predictions
made by the LN and GG distributions for the 1, 5, and
13 mm receiver apertures and the two cases of tur-
bulence strength is shown in Fig. 1. The solid curve
represents the GG distribution, while the dashed
curve is the LN distribution. Each subplot shows the
results from one turbulence condition and one aper-
ture size. The comparisons between data and theory
are significantly different for the two different turbu-
lence conditions. As shown in Fig. 1, the probability of
fade calculated from the experimental data for the
moderate turbulence strength of Cn2 6.5 1014
has a close fit to the GG distribution for all three
receiver aperture sizes. In this case, the LN distribu-
tion underestimates the probability of fade for all
receiver aperture sizes. For the strong turbulence
case of Cn2 4.6 1013, the experimental data
support the LN distribution for both the 5 and 13 mm
receiver apertures. The resolution of the data for the
1 mm aperture is limited, but the trend toward the
LN distribution for the strong case of turbulence is
noticeable. In this case, the GG distribution overes-
timates the probability of fade for all receiver aper-
ture sizes.
In Fig. 2, comparisons are made between the num-
ber of fades per second obtained from the experimen-
tal data (circles), the LN distribution (short dashed
curve), the approximation of the GG joint PDF in Eq.
(18) (long dashed curve), and the newly developed
integral expression for the GG joint PDF in Eq. (26)
(solid curve). Each subplot shows the results from one
turbulence condition and one aperture size. The com-
parison between the experimental results and the
theoretical predictions for the expected number of
fades should be focused on the shape (slope) of the
theoretical curves relative to the data points since the
theoretical expressions are based on an estimate of
the quasi-frequency, 0. The values of 0 used to pro-
CASE II:
Cn l0 L0
R 2 m23 (mm) (m) R2
13
2.7 4.6 10 4.6 1.1 19.2
0 0
(Hz) I2 ln I2 (Hz)
31.0 1.09 1.11 2.64 1.29 126
29.3 1.10 1.31 2.38 1.22 112
26.7 1.13 2.47 1.65 0.97 99
20 June 2007 Vol. 46, No. 18 APPLIED OPTICS 3785
Fig. 1. Probability of fade as a function of the fade threshold parameter, FT, for the receiving apertures of diameters: (a) (b), 1 mm;
(c) (d) 5 mm; and (e) (f) 13 mm. Comparisons are made between the experimental data (Data), the GG distribution and the LN for
Cn2 6.5 1014 (a), (c), (e), and Cn2 4.6 1013 (b), (d), (f).

duce the theoretical curves in Fig. 2 are shown in
Table 1. Different values of the quasi-frequency will
shift the curves vertically, since the theoretical ex-
pressions of the number of fades are directly propor-
tional to 0.
For the moderate strength of turbulence, it is clear
from Fig. 2 that the experimental number of fades per
second is closest to the newly developed GG integral
expression for all three receiver aperture sizes. In
this case, the LN distribution underestimates the
number of fades. For the case of strong turbulence,
the experimental number of fades for the 13 mm ap-
erture agrees with the LN predictions, while the
same quantity for the 1 and 5 mm apertures shifts
toward the LN results. In this case, the GG distribu-
tion overestimates the number of fades. For the 1 mm
aperture, the experimental number of fades is closest
to the predictions made by the approximation of the
GG distribution, which lies between the GG and LN
results. The approximation of the joint PDF of a GG
distributed irradiance and its time derivative in Eq.
(18) is a mixture of the LN and GG joint PDFs since
the conditional PDF of the GG time derivative is
approximated by a zero-mean Gaussian distribution,

3786 APPLIED OPTICS Vol. 46, No. 18 20 June 2007

Fig. 2. Expected number of fades per second as a function of the fade threshold parameter, FT, for the receiving apertures of diameters:
(a) (b) 1 mm; (c) (d) 5 mm; and (e) (f) 13 mm. Comparisons are made between the experimental data (Data), the LN distribution, the
approximation of the GG-a distribution, and the integral expression for the GG-b for Cn2 6.5 1014 (a), (c), (e), and Cn2 4.6
1013 (b), (d), (f).

which is the functional form of the conditional PDF of
the LN time derivative.
The expected number of fades based on the integral
expression of the GG joint PDF predicts a larger num-
ber of fades than the approximation. The two theo-
retical curves have different shapes, and the integral
expression tracks GG distributed data much closer
compared with the approximation for moderate tur-
bulence strength. In this case the new integral ex-
pression makes a notable difference and should be
used to predict the expected number of fades per
second.
Figure 3 shows the mean fade time of the experi-
mental data (circles), the LN distribution (short
dashed curve), the approximation of the GG joint
PDF (long dashed curve), and the newly developed
integral expression for the GG joint PDF (solid curve).
The theoretical values of the mean fade time were
obtained by dividing Eq. (4) by Eq. (15) for the LN
distribution, and Eq. (8) by Eq. (18) or Eq. (26), re-

20 June 2007 Vol. 46, No. 18 APPLIED OPTICS 3787

Fig. 3. Mean fade time as a function of the fade threshold parameter, FT, for the receiving apertures of diameters: (a) (b) 1 mm; (c) (d)
5 mm; and (e) (f) 13 mm. Comparisons are made between the experimental data (Data), the LN, the approximation of the GG-a distribution
and the integral expression for the GG-b distribution for Cn2 6.5 1014 (a), (c), (e), and Cn2 4.6 1013 (b), (d), (f).

spectively, for the approximation and integral expres-
sion for the GG joint PDF. Different values of the
quasi-frequency than those shown in Table 1 would
result in vertical shifts of the theoretical curves. The
experimental data for the moderate case of turbu-
lence support the GG predictions for the mean fade
time, while the LN distribution overpredicts this
quantity. For the case of strong turbulence, the GG
predictions are favored for the 1 and 5 mm receiver
apertures. For the 13 mm aperture, a shift toward
the LN predictions takes place for low values of the
threshold parameter, FT. The mean fade time is the
result of dividing one small number by another small
number, which can lead to unstable results. It follows
from Fig. 3 that the reduction in the mean fade time
obtained by increasing FT, is smaller in the strong
turbulence than it is in the moderate case.
The results for the expected number of fades agree
with the results for the probability of fade for both
cases of turbulence strength. The shift from the GG
distribution to the LN distribution for the two differ-
ent turbulence conditions is in agreement with the
results from the PDF study [2] and is believed to be
attributable to the size of the coherence radius rela-

3788 APPLIED OPTICS Vol. 46, No. 18 20 June 2007

tive to the receiver aperture size. The coherence ra-
dius, which decreases with increasing turbulence
strength, is larger than all three aperture sizes for
Cn2 6.5 1014, but smaller than the 13 mm ap-
erture, approximately the same size as the 5 aperture
and larger than the 1 mm aperture for Cn2 4.6
1013.
6. Conclusions
Fade statistics obtained from experimental data for
finite-sized receiver apertures in the moderate-to-
strong turbulence were compared to predictions made
by the LN and GG distributions. The results are in
agreement with a recent study of the PDF of the
irradiance fluctuations and aperture averaging ef-
fects [2]. It was found that that the GG distribution
almost accurately predicts the probability of fade, the
expected number of fades per second, and the mean
fade time for the irradiance fluctuations collected by
finite-sized apertures that are significantly smaller
than the coherence radius, 0 (20 mm for the moder-
ate turbulence case, and 6.2 mm for the strong tur-
bulence case). For apertures larger than or equal to
the coherence radius, the experimental fade statistics
agree with the LN predictions. The LN distribution
provides a best case scenario, but underestimates the
probability of fade and the expected number of fades
for receiver apertures smaller than the coherence ra-
dius. The GG distribution overestimates the same
quantities for apertures larger than 0 and gives a
worst case scenario. Consequently, the predictions
made by the GG and LN distributions provide an
upper and lower bound, respectively, for the proba-
bility of fade and the number of fades per second for
irradiance data collected in the moderate-to-strong
fluctuation regime.
A newly developed integral expression for the ex-
pected number of fades per second, based on the joint
PDF of a GG distributed irradiance and its time de-
rivative, resulted in a higher number of fades and
tracks GG distributed irradiance data more closely
than predictions based on the existing approximation
of the GG joint PDF. All theoretical expressions for
the expected number of fades per second are directly
proportional to the quasi-frequency, 0. Further anal-
ysis is needed to accurately estimate 0 when com-
parisons are made with experimental data.
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