Measuring Atmospheric Turbulence with a Lunar Scintillometer Array

An array of photodetectors, responding to scintillation of light from the Moon, provides a probe of the turbulence structure along the line of sight through the atmosphere. The measured quantities are time series of intensity fluctuations received by the individual detectors in the array. From the covariance of these fluctuations, taken between all possible detector pairs, one can determine the turbulence profile from the ground up to a C-N(2) maximum height determined by the separation between the detectors. This paper outlines the theoretical basis of the technique and discusses methods of data analysis. We then describe the design and construction of a prototype eight-element lunar scintillometer array and present first results of observations using this system.