Modeling atmospheric turbulence and noise as electromagnetic interference

In this paper, we consider an emitter located at some range from a receiver. Our goal is to determine whether or not this emitter will cause interference in this receiver in the presence of atmospheric turbulence and noise. To make this determination, we use the combined probability distribution functions of Gaussian noise and lognormally-distributed atmospheric turbulence. Using this combined probability distribution, we calculate the probability that signals from the remote emitter will exceed our receiver threshold using different values of the turbulence level, power output, and receiver parameters. We show that atmospheric turbulence generally degrades detection probability through electromagnetic interference.