Refractive turbulence strength estimation based on the laser echo signal amplification effect.

Experimental data proving the possibility of lidar measurement of the refractive turbulence strength based on the effect of backscattering amplification are reported. It is shown, for the first time to our knowledge, that the values of the amplification factor correlate with the variance of random jitter of the optical image of an incoherent light source depending on the value of the structure constant of the air refractive index turbulent fluctuations averaged over the probing path.