Software for Simulating Atmospheric Turbulence using Phase to Space Transform
Phase-to-space transform simulator reproduces atmospheric turbulence 300–1000× faster than traditional split-step methods.
Researchers at Purdue University have developed a new method to simulate atmospheric turbulence. This method uses a new concept known as the phase-to-space transform. Until now, two main approaches have been used to simulate turbulence—split-step propagation and overly simplistic models. Split-step propagation is time-consuming, while the overly simplistic models from the computer vision community are fast, yet miss the fundamental statistics. The Purdue researchers' method combines the speed of the computer vision models and near identical accuracy to split-step.
Technology Validation: The simulator is 300-1000x faster than mainstream split-step simulators.
Advantages:
- faster
- single-pass
- differentiable
- accurate to physical model
- better reconstruction ability
Applications:
- surveillance
- tracking
- detection
- biometrics
- autonomous vehicles
- defense
TRL: 2
Intellectual Property:
Provisional-Gov. Funding, 2021-04-19, United States
Copyright, 2021-04-19, United States
Provisional-Gov. Funding, 2022-04-13, United States
Utility-Gov. Funding, 2023-04-13, United States
CON-Gov. Funding, 2025-08-21, United States
Keywords: Atmospheric turbulence, Computer Technology, Machine Learning, Phase-to-space transform, Simulation