  Multiple filamentation in air of high-power ultrashort laser radiation with
transverse intensity profile resembling a "corona" composed by incoherent
combining of several annularly distributed independent top-hat sub-beams is
theoretically studied. Through the numerical solution of time-averaged
nonlinear Schrodinger equation, we study the spatio-angular dynamics of
synthesized near-infrared "corona-beam" (CB) along the optical path by varying
the number and power of the beamlets (corona-spikes). For the first time to our
knowledge, the evident advances in the multiple filamentation region
manipulating of synthesized CB are demonstrated. Particularly, by adjusting the
number and aperture of the constituting sub-beams it makes possible to
significantly delay the CB filamentation onset distance and increase the
filamentation length in air. In addition, at the post-filamentation stage of
femtosecond pulse propagation under certain conditions the synthesized
corona-beams exhibit significantly lower angular divergence of its most intense
part (post-filamentation light channel) compared to the beams with regular
uni-modal intensity profiles (Gaussian, plateau-like) that provides enhancing
of laser power delivered to the receiver over the atmospheric links.
