Abstract
This chapter provides descriptions of the key statistical properties of point-object images formed by telescopes observing over extended atmospheric paths. These properties include the average intensity envelopes for long- and short-exposure images and the statistical properties of speckle in instantaneous images. Descriptions are given for both monochromatic and polychromatic images. All of the properties can be expressed in terms of the telescope pupil function, the rms OPD fluctuation over the extended atmospheric path, σ, and the autocorrelation function of that fluctuation, \(\rho (\xi, \eta)\). Because image intensity envelopes are generally wavelength dependent, telescope resolution is also wavelength dependent. Expressions are also provided for the average intensity envelops of images of extended objects. The image of such an object can take an infinite variety of different forms depending on the coherence properties of the illumination.
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Notes
- 1.
The spatial stationarity of S follows as a consequence of the spatially stationarity assumption made in Sect. 3.6.1 for the refractive index field, n(x, y, z).
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McKechnie, T.S. (2016). Properties of Point-Object Images Formed by Telescopes. In: General Theory of Light Propagation and Imaging Through the Atmosphere. Springer Series in Optical Sciences, vol 196. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18209-4_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18209-4_7
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