The book introduces optical wave propagation in the irregular turbulent atmosphere and the relations to laser beam and LIDAR applications for both optical communication and imaging. It examines atmosphere fundamentals, structure, and content. It explains specific situations occurring in the irregular atmosphere and for specific natural phenomena that affect optical ray and laser beam propagation. It emphasizes how to use LIDAR to investigate atmospheric phenomena and predict primary parameters of the irregular turbulent atmosphere and suggests what kinds of optical devices to operate in different atmospheric situations to minimize the deleterious effects of natural atmospheric phenomena.

Nathan Blaunstein was born in Moldova, former USSR, in 1948. He received MS degrees in radio physics and electronics from Tomsk University, Tomsk, former Soviet Union, in 1972, and PhD and DS and professor degrees in radio physics and electronics from the Institute of Geomagnetism, Ionosphere, and Radiowave Propagation (IZMIR), Academy of Science USSR, Moscow, Russia, in 1985 and 1991, respectively. From 1979 to 1984, he was an engineer and a lecturer, and then, from 1984 to 1992, a senior scientist, an associate professor, and a professor at Moldavian University, Beltsy, Moldova. From 1993 he was a researcher of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a visiting professor in the Wireless Cellular Communication Program at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel. Since April 2001, he has been an associate professor, and in 2005 - a full professor in the Department of Communication Systems Engineering. Dr. Blaunstein has published 10 books, 2 special chapters in handbooks on applied engineering and applied electrodynamics, 6 manuals, and over 190 articles in radio and optical physics, communication, and geophysics. His research interests include problems of radio and optical wave propagation, diffraction, reflection, and scattering in various media (sub-soil medium, terrestrial environments, troposphere, and ionosphere) for purposes of optical communication and radio and optical location, aircraft, mobile-satellite, and terrestrial wireless communications and networking.

N. S. Kopeika was born in Baltimore in 1944. Raised in Philadelphia, he received BS, MS, and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 1966, 1968, and 1972, respectively. He and his family moved to Israel, and he began his career at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in 1973. He chaired the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering for two terms (1989-1993) and was named Reuven and Francis Feinberg Professor of Electro-optics in 1994. He was the first head of the Department of Electro-optical Engineering (2000-2005), which grants graduate degrees in electro-optical engineering. He has published more than 190 papers in international reviewed journals and well over 150 papers at various conferences. Recent research involves development of a novel inexpensive focal plane array camera for terahertz imaging. He is a fellow of SPIE. Other areas of research include interactions of electromagnetic waves with plasmas, the optogalvanic effect, environmental effects on optoelectronic devices, imaging system theory, propagation of light through the atmosphere, imaging through the atmosphere, image processing and restoration from blur, imaging in the presence of motion and vibration, lidar, target acquisition, and image quality in general. He is the author of the textbook A System Engineering Approach to Imaging, published by SPIE Press (first printing 1998, second printing 2000), and is a topic editor for Marcel Dekker for atmospheric optics in their Encyclopedia of Optical Engineering