Fractional moments for processing data from low-dinamics acquisition systems in laser atmospheric scintillation

Use of fractional moments of low order, recently proposed by us, for investigating probability density functions in laser scintillation statistics through the atmospheric turbulence, is here proposed for overcoming the saturation of the electronics due to low dynamics acquisition systems. We show that fractional moments, of order lower than two, can be accurately estimated even in the case of strong fluctuations and can be used to correctly set the parameters of the distribution. Validation of the method is given by comparing data from a "long tail distribution" with different theoretical distributions proposed in the literature for laser scintillation in the atmosphere.