Multilayered temporally evolving phase screens based on statistical interpolation

Abstract

Simulation of the dynamic effects of atmospheric turbulence assists in understanding, testing and effective implementation of adaptive optics systems. Statistical interpolation technique helps in retaining the spatial turbulence statistics when atmospheric phase screens are required to be moved by non-integer multiples of the grid spacing. We applied statistical interpolation in the simulation of temporally evolving phase screens using the multilayer model of atmospheric turbulence. A comparison of the statistical method with bilinear interpolator and random midpoint displacement method is presented. It is shown that underestimating Fried's parameter (r0) in the interpolation leads to large errors and hence it is appropriate to choose a little larger value of r0 than estimated from the phase screens.