Experimental measurements of atmospheric Turbulence through optical triangulation method for FSO applications

Optical Turbulence affects the performance of Free Space Optical (FSO) systems. This phenomena degrades the light wave front, changes the spatial optical power distribution and wander the beam in the receiver plane. The atmospheric turbulence is evaluated by the Refractive Index Structure Constant (Cn2). In this paper we present atmospheric turbulence measurements, using a simple and low cost device based on optical triangulation method, by tracking the beam hotspot in real time on the receiver plane.