Passive Method To Measure Strength Of Turbulence

Disclosed is a method to passively measure and calculate the strength of turbulence via the index of refraction structure constant C.sub.n.sup.2 from video imagery gathered by an imaging device, such as a video camera. Processing may occur with any type computing device utilizing a processor executing machine executable code stored on memory. This method significantly simplifies instrumentation requirements, reduces cost, and provides rapid data output. This method combines an angle of arrival methodology, which provides scale factors, with a new spatial/temporal frequency domain method. As part of the development process, video imagery from high speed cameras was collected and analyzed. The data was decimated to video rates such that statistics could be computed and used to confirm that this passive method accurately characterizes the atmospheric turbulence. C.sub.n.sup.2 accuracy from this method compared well with scintillometer data through two full orders of magnitude and more capability is expected beyond this verification.