A phase screen model for simulating numerically the propagation of a laser beam in rain

The method based on the generalisation of the phase screen method for a continuous random medium is proposed for simulating numerically the propagation of laser radiation in a turbulent atmosphere with precipitation. In the phase screen model for a discrete component of a heterogeneous 'air—rain droplet' medium, the amplitude screen describing the scattering of an optical field by discrete particles of the medium is replaced by an equivalent phase screen with a spectrum of the correlation function of the effective dielectric constant fluctuations that is similar to the spectrum of a discrete scattering component — water droplets in air. The 'turbulent' phase screen is constructed on the basis of the Kolmogorov model, while the 'rain' screen model utilises theexponential distribution of the number of rain drops with respect to their radii as a function of the rain intensity. Theresults of the numerical simulation are compared with the known theoretical estimates for a large-scale discrete scattering medium.