Turbulence can lead to perceptible refractive index fluctuations. The danger of wave front distortion and noticeable coherent light beam attenuation arises. But because the effective thermal diffusivity of a turbulent flow considerably exceeds the conventional molecular thermal diffusivity that is inherent in laminar flows and stationary media, the rate of change of temperature, density, and refractive index inhomogeneities increases noticeably.

In the opinion of Schlichting, in a turbulent flow “the details of the pulsating motion superimposed on the main motion are so complex that to describe them theoretically seems hopeless” [2]. A great deal of time has passed since this statement was made. However, despite the longstanding efforts of specialists, the development of reliable mathematical models for the structure of turbulent flows that would make it possible to perform quantitative calculations with acceptable accuracy are far from complete. Nevertheless, based on concepts developed by Kolmogorov [8], certain regularities can be identified that make it possible in a number of cases to qualitatively describe the behavior of the systems under consideration and even to make approximate quantitative estimates [9, 10]. We will examine the structure of a turbulent flow using the model from ref. [8] and assess the potential effect of turbulence on the optical quality of a medium.