Effect of the log-amplitude covariance function on the statistics of speckle propagation through the turbulent atmosphere

The extended Huygens-Fresnel principle has been used to make an analysis of the first- and second-order statistics of the received intensity for speckle propagation through the turbulent atmosphere. These formulations include the effects of the log-amplitude covariance as well as the wave structure function and represent a significant extension of previous work. It was found that, with the inclusion of the log-amplitude covariance, the normalized variance is dependent on the turbulence strength and rises above unity.