Slant path average intensity of finite optical beam propagating in turbulent atmosphere

The average intensity of finite laser beam propagating through turbulent atmosphere is calculated from the extended Huygens Presnel principle. Formulas are presented for the slant path average intensity from an arbitrarily truncated Gaussian beam. The new expressions are derived from the modified von Karman spectrum for refractive-index fluctuations, quadratic approximation of the structure function, and Gaussian approximation for the product of Gaussian function and Bessel function. It is shown that the form of average intensity is not a Gaussian function but a polynomial of the power of the binomial function, Gaussian function, and the incomplete gamma function. The results also show that the mean irradiance of a finite optical beam propagating in slant path turbulent atmosphere not only depends on the effective beam radius at the transmitting aperture plane, propagation distance, and long-term lateral coherence length of spherical wave, but also on the radius of emit aperture.