激光在大气中长距离传输时，即使湍流很弱也会产生强湍流效应。在强湍流效应中，一个重要的问题就是光波的相位不再是连续的，相位不连续性问题会引起现有的自适应光学校正能力的降低。介绍了相位不连续点产生的机理和基本性质，阐述了激光大气传输相位不连续性问题近年来的研究进展，为激光大气传输及自适应光学校正技术研究工作的更好开展提供了参考。

With laser beam propagating over a long distance through even weak atmospheric turbulence, significant turbulence effect might happen so that a continuous phase function does not exist in general owing to the presence of branch points in phase. Branch points could induce degradation of the performance of a standard adaptive optics system when it is used to compensate atmospheric turbulence. The generation and development, the optical properties and topological characteristics of branch points in the atmosphere were introduced. The study of phase discontinuity of laser propagation through atmosphere was reviewed so as to provide a reference for further study of laser propagation through atmosphere and adaptive optics system.