Simulation of atmospheric turbulence for optical systems with extended sources.

In this paper, the method of random wave vectors for simulation of atmospheric turbulence is extended to 2D×2D space to provide spatial degrees of freedom at both input and output planes. The modified technique can thus simultaneously simulate the turbulence-induced log-amplitude and phase distortions for optical systems with extended sources either implemented as a single large aperture or multiple apertures. The reliability of our simulation technique is validated in different conditions and its application is briefly investigated in a multibeam free-space optical communication scenario.