  Atmospheric channels are a promising candidate to establish secure quantum
communication on a global scale. However, due to their turbulent nature, it is
crucial to understand the impact of the atmosphere on the quantum properties of
light and examine it experimentally. In this paper, we introduce a method to
probe atmospheric free-space links with quantum light on a laboratory scale. In
contrast to previous works, our method models arbitrary intensity losses caused
by turbulence to emulate general atmospheric conditions. This allows us to
characterize turbulent quantum channels in a well-controlled manner. To
implement this technique, we perform a series of measurements with different
constant attenuations and simulate the fluctuating losses by combining the
obtained data. We directly test the proposed method with an on-chip source of
nonclassical light and a time-bin-multiplexed detection system. With the
obtained data, we characterize the nonclassicality of the generated states for
different atmospheric noise models and analyze a post-selection protocol. This
general technique in atmospheric quantum optics allows for studying turbulent
quantum channels and predicting their properties for future applications.
