Thermal-Blooming Threshold
Compare absorbed clear-air power density with a caller-supplied thermal-blooming limit.
Description
Thermal-blooming screening compares absorbed power per beam area with a supplied limit.
Thermal-blooming screening compares absorbed power per beam area with a supplied limit. The chosen limit represents the caller’s atmospheric criterion.1
Compare absorbed clear-air power density with a caller-supplied thermal-blooming limit.
When to use Thermal-Blooming Threshold
Use this tool to compare absorbed clear-air power density with a caller-supplied thermal-blooming limit.
Prepare the optical measurements, geometry, fitted coefficients or caller-selected thresholds requested. Confirm wavelength, radius/diameter, pulse-width, angle and unit conventions before running the calculation.
How to use Thermal-Blooming Threshold and understand its results
- Prepare the optical measurements, geometry, fitted coefficients or caller-selected thresholds requested. Confirm wavelength, radius/diameter, pulse-width, angle and unit conventions before running the calculation.
- Enter absorbedPowerWatts, beamAreaSquareMeters, maximumPowerDensityWPerM2 using the field table and calculation rules, then run the tool.
- Read powerDensityWPerM2, densityMarginWPerM2, withinLimit. The explanation below defines the units, signs, ordering and any flags or placeholder values.
- If the tool reports an input issue, correct the values and run it again. Apply the stated assumptions when interpreting a successfully returned result.
| Input field | Meaning | Value type; see rules below | Requirement |
|---|---|---|---|
| absorbedPowerWatts | Absorbed beam power (W) | number; minimum: 0 | Required |
| beamAreaSquareMeters | Beam area (m²) | number; minimum: 0 | Required |
| maximumPowerDensityWPerM2 | Maximum clear-air power density (W/m²) | number; minimum: 0 | Required |
Enter nonnegative absorbed power and maximum density, and positive area. Return density, signed margin and inclusive within-limit flag.
density=absorbedPower/area; margin=maximum−density Units, indexing, boundary conditions and exceptional cases are defined in the calculation rules above.
| Output field | Meaning | Value type |
|---|---|---|
| powerDensityWPerM2 | Power density (W/m²) | number; minimum: 0 |
| densityMarginWPerM2 | Power-density margin (W/m²) | number |
| withinLimit | Within limit | boolean |
{
"input": {
"absorbedPowerWatts": 100,
"beamAreaSquareMeters": 0.01,
"maximumPowerDensityWPerM2": 12000
},
"output": {
"powerDensityWPerM2": 10000,
"densityMarginWPerM2": 2000,
"withinLimit": true
}
}Limitations and assumptions
No atmospheric heating, wind, propagation or refractive distortion is calculated.
Numeric inputs must be finite. Follow the calculation-specific rules for overflow, underflow and exceptional cases. Missing required fields, extra fields, wrong value types and violations of the calculation rules are input errors. A successfully returned false flag is an evaluated outcome; its meaning is explained above.
Alternative or Complementary methods
Use Rytov Variance: Calculate plane-wave Rytov variance and classify it with a caller-supplied threshold. For a complementary task, use Free-Space Link Margin: Calculate a free-space optical link budget from caller-supplied gains, losses, and sensitivity.
References
-
Thermal-Blooming Threshold — tool.io
Similar or alternative tools
- Rytov Variance
Calculate plane-wave Rytov variance and classify it with a caller-supplied threshold.
- Free-Space Link Margin
Calculate a free-space optical link budget from caller-supplied gains, losses, and sensitivity.