Abstract: Atmospheric optical turbulence is one of the principal factors that has effects on laser beams propagation through the atmosphere. In consideration of the uncontrollability of the actual atmospheric trubulence, it is necessary to establish a stable and controllable simulation atmospheric turbulence in laboratory in order to carry out the study of laser atmospheric transmission effect. In addition, the realtime measurement of multiple parameters of atmospheric optical turbulence is also an important research in the field of atmospheric optics. A device was set up in laboratory for simulating atmospheric optical turbulence by using the forced convection of hot air, and then the real-time measurement technology of atmospheric turbulence parameters, such as atmospheric coherent length, atmospheric turbulence intensity and internal scale, was studied. Under the approximation of geometrical optics, the parameters of atmospheric optical turbulence were obtained by measuring the irradiance fluctuations and arrival-of-angle fluctuations of laser beams after propagation through simulated-turbulence, and then the uncertainty in measurement was given by analyzing the experimental data. Finally, the experimental data was compared with the measurement results of literature. It is shown that the atmospheric turbulence simulation device developed in this work can be used for the real-time measurement of atmospheric turbulence parameters and the study of laser propagation effect in the laboratory.

Key words: atmospheric optics, atmospheric turbulence, measurement of turbulence parameters, evaluation of uncertainty