Abstract

It is discussed the limitations of the widely used markovian approximation applied to model the turbulent refractive index in lightwave propagation. It is well-known the index is a passive scalar field. Thus, the actual knowledge about these quantities is used to propose an alternative stochastic process to the markovian approximation: the fractional Brownian motion. This generalizes the former introducing memory; that is, there is correlation along the propagation path. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.