A Cook Book of Structure Functions

The structure function is a useful quantity to characterize wavefront distortions. We derive expressions for the structure functions of the averaged wavefront phase and slopes. The expressions are valid within the inertial range of atmospheric turbulence, and are meant to serve as engineering formulae when reconstructing profiles of the atmospheric turbulence, specifically in the context of atmospheric profiling instruments (e.g. SLODAR and S-DIMM+) and multi-conjugate adaptive optical systems.