Daytime r(0) evaluated from vertical microthermal measurements.

The usefulness of parameter r(0) for describing the effect of atmospheric turbulence on wavefront distortion sensitive optical systems has been widely discussed. In this paper we present in situ daytime r(0) measurements (5500 A, Zenith propagation) obtained from balloon-borne microthermal radiosondes. We find that the parameter r(0) is log normal distributed at various levels aloft and that r(0) follows a power law in the 100-10,000-m range. Comparing our results with nighttime ground based observations we conclude that local turbulence prevails in determining image quality.