Choice of the model of atmospheric turbulence

In the theory of the propagation of coherent radiation, like laser radiation, in the atmospheric turbulence, different models can be used to evaluate the wave structure function. In order to compare the results given by using the different models, here we introduce the concept of equivalent models, and derive the phase structure function for three different models. It is shown that equivalent models can give rise to substantially different structure functions of a wave parameter. By comparing some of our experimental results with the theoretical curves, we show that in some cases one can obtain a fitting from different not-equivalent models. This result rises the need of measuring more than one wave parameter in order to discriminate between models.