TY  - JOUR
AU  - van de Boer, A.
AU  - Moene, A. F.
AU  - Graf, A.
AU  - Simmer, C.
AU  - Holtslag, A. A. M.
TI  - Estimation of the refractive index structure parameter from single-level daytime routine weather data
JO  - Applied optics
VL  - 53
IS  - 26
SN  - 1539-4522
CY  - Washington, DC
PB  - Optical Soc. of America
M1  - FZJ-2014-05373
SP  - 5944-5960
PY  - 2014
AB  - Atmospheric scintillations cause difficulties for applications where an undistorted propagation of electromagneticradiation is essential. These scintillations are related to turbulent fluctuations of temperatureand humidity that are in turn related to surface heat fluxes. We developed an approach that quantifiesthese scintillations by estimating Cn2 from surface fluxes that are derived from single-level routineweather data. In contrast to previous methods that are biased to dry and warm air, our method is directlyapplicable to several land surface types, environmental conditions, wavelengths, and measurementheights (lookup tables for a limited number of site-specific parameters are provided). The approach allowsfor an efficient evaluation of the performance of, e.g., infrared imaging systems, laser geodetic systems,and ground-to-satellite optical communication systems.We tested our approach for two grass fieldsin central and southern Europe, and for a wheat field in central Europe. Although there are uncertaintiesin the flux estimates, the impact on Cn2 is shown to be rather small. The Cn2 daytime estimates agreewell with values determined from eddy covariance measurements for the application to the three fields.However, some adjustments were needed for the approach for the grass in southern Europe becauseof non-negligible boundary-layer processes that occur in addition to surface-layer processes. © 2014Optical Society of America
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000341645200015
DO  - DOI:10.1364/AO.53.005944
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/171811
ER  -