Partially coherent laser beam pointing by atmosphere backscatter

The results of the analysis on how the atmosphere backscatter of a propagating beam can be used to determine the deviation of the axis of a partially coherent laser beam from a given propagation direction due to initial aberrations of the beam wave front are presented. It has been shown that the mismatch of the beam direction and axis of the transmitting telescope can be determined by the average intensity distribution of scattered radiation in the focal plane of the receiving telescope to an accuracy of several microradians, depending on the laser beam power and the receiver’s characteristics.