Characterization of wavefront aberration in laser beam propagating over saline water and sands

Wireless laser communication is a promising method for communication between islands or terminals over sea. However, the wavefront as well as the intensity of the laser beam are severely influenced by the atmospheric turbulence, which degrades the reliability and performance of the communication system. In this paper, we focus on characterization of wavefront aberration in laser beam propagating over saline water and sands. Both the spatial and temporal characteristics of the wavefront aberration in the laser beam have been investigated by experiments. Results show that the laser beam suffers stronger wavefront aberration when propagating over sands than saline water under the same heating condition.