An improved analysis of optical turbulence effects on short-exposure passive (SE) imaging is described, resulting in a new analytic expression for the SE modulation transfer function (MTF). This analysis expands on a 2011 study that examined characteristics of a tilt-phase component discovered in the standard theory of SE turbulence effects characterization. The analysis introduces an improved integration technique and a reformulated phase structure function, facilitating computation of a

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... element database of MTF results at low-to high-angular frequencies covering a wide range of diffraction and turbulence conditions. Analysis of this database is described, yielding a new analytic SE MTF, accurate to a root-mean-square error of 0.000218 versus the database. Comparisons show that the new expression is well correlated to an alternative computationally intensive method, and it is a factor 29 to 64 improvement over prior analytic expressions. Limits of applicability of the approach for incoherent imaging are also discussed. The low-computational cost of the new method is suitable for systems performance modeling of turbulence impacts, including path-varying turbulence scenarios. © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.