Abstract: A liquid mercury optical scintillator for simulating atmospheric laser scintillation effects is described which comprises a partially bounded mercury pool, a transducer operatively connected to the the pool for coupling vibrational energy to the surface of the pool, and a detector for measuring spatial irradiance variations in a laser beam reflected from the vibrating mercury surface which variations correspond to probability distributions matching atmospheric In-normal statistics.

Abstract: An incriment optical signal from a potential enemy threat is captured by an array of apertures which are connected to a number of broadband filters. The broadband filters have overlapping band pass regions to cover the wavelength spectrum of potential threats, but not with the spectral resolution of a larger number of narrowband filters. To further increase resolution without adding additional filters, each broadband filter is connected to an optical delay line which converts wavelength into a time delay. To enable measurement of the time delay, additional optical lines with no relative delay are connected directly from the apertures. The time difference between when a signal arrives over optical delay lines from the filters and when a signal arrives over optical lines directly from the array of apertures is then reconverted to wavelength to a high degree of resolution.

Abstract: A reflective membrane optical scintillator system for laboratory simulation of atmospheric laser scintillation is described which comprises a substantially rigid frame defining an opening of preselected size and shape, a reflective membrane stretched on the frame within the opening and held to provide a well defined boundary for vibrational excitation of the membrane, a source of light and related optics for directing a collimated light beam onto the membrane, and an acoustic transducer for controllably vibrationally exciting the membrane with a preselected acoustical spectrum for spatially modulating the beam whereby atmospheric turbulence effects are predictably simulated.