Scintillation-induced centroid jitter: analytical solutions

Eric W. Mitchell; Derek J. Burrell; Milo W. Hyde; Ronald G. Driggers; Mark F. Spencer

doi:10.1117/12.3027710

7 October 2024 Scintillation-induced centroid jitter: analytical solutions

Eric W. Mitchell, Derek J. Burrell, Milo W. Hyde, Ronald G. Driggers, Mark F. Spencer

Proceedings Volume 13149, Unconventional Imaging, Sensing, and Adaptive Optics 2024; 131490Q (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3027710
Event: Optical Engineering + Applications, 2024, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Atmospheric induced amplitude fluctuations, known as scintillation, impose limitations on active tracking and wavefront-sensing performance over near-horizontal propagation paths. These sensors typically use centroid tracking to estimate the aperture-averaged phase gradient (G-tilt). G-tilt, in practice, is a phase-only measurement, whereas centroid tracking includes both the phase and amplitude components. For a nonuniform beam, centroid tracking will measure the irradiance-weighted average phase gradient (C-tilt). In a closed-loop system, the angular position of the centroid is used to conjugate tilt and reduce system jitter. Of particular interest are the effects of scintillation on the estimation of G-tilt from the centroid angular position. Scintillation will cause an error in the estimation of the G-tilt, and this error can be quantified by the noise-equivalent angle (NEA). The two main objectives of this work are to formulate a closed-form expression for (1) the NEA due to scintillation, and (2) the difference between G-tilt and C-tilt in the weak-to-moderate scintillation regime. The derived solutions are based on the first-order Rytov approximation. As such, the difference will be quantified by deriving a mean-squared error between the desired measurement (G-tilt) and the estimator (C-tilt).

Conference Presentation

(2024) Published by SPIE. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

Citation Download Citation

Eric W. Mitchell, Derek J. Burrell, Milo W. Hyde, Ronald G. Driggers, and Mark F. Spencer "Scintillation-induced centroid jitter: analytical solutions", Proc. SPIE 13149, Unconventional Imaging, Sensing, and Adaptive Optics 2024, 131490Q (7 October 2024); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3027710

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