Imaging in the presence of random wave aberrations

Abstract
A general theory of imaging a randomly aberrated wave is presented. Special emphasis is placed upon identifying parameters and characteristics necessary to simulate imaging through the turbulent atmosphere. Two components are found in the average image and optical transfer function. Energy and intensity ratios are calculated. Special cases studied include wave amplitude and phase fluctuations alone and in combination, image contrast, predetection compensation, and stellar speckle interferometry. Observations of cores in star images and laboratory simulations give support to our calculation of an additional term in the long exposure image and optical transfer function.

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