Fractal characteristics of laser scintillation in the atmosphere

Laser scintillation in the turbulent atmosphere was analyzed using the fractal methods, especially its fractal dimension and Hurst exponent. The results show that: the laser scintillation is a nonstationary random process with long-run and positive correlation. In the weak fluctuation conditions (the scintillation index in the range of 0 to 1.2), the fractal dimension would increase and the Hurst exponent would decrease with the increase of the scintillation index. That means the scintillation's intensity and complexity both increase and the temporal correlation decreases as the degree of fluctuation increases. In the strong fluctuation conditions, the limited data may reflect that the fractal dimension keeps on increasing, and no saturation appears. In addition, the effect of the Fresnel