Table 1. Overview of variables and abbreviations.

Symbol	Explanation	Equation
$A(\mathbf{\text{x}},t)$	Amplitude of phasor representing the OCT signal	(1)
$\overline{A}$	Mean signal amplitude	(7)
$A_{noise}$	Amplitude of complex phasor representing the OCT noise signal	(3)
$\overline{A_{noise}}$	Mean noise amplitude	(4)
$\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi$	Phase difference	(39,42)
$I$	Signal intensity, $I=A^2$
$\overline{I}$	Mean signal intensity	(13)
${\overline{I_x}}^{\prime }$	$\overline{I_x}$ with noise bias correction, (x = void,MAG,CPX)	(31–33)
$I_{noise}$	Noise intensity, $I_{noise}=A_{noise}^2$
$\overline{I_{noise}}$	Mean noise intensity	(11)
$i_{noise}$	Imaginary part of complex phasor representing the OCT noise signal	(2)
$N$	Number of averaged signals
$p_A(A_{noise})$	PDF describing amplitudes of random phasors (Rayleigh distribution)	(3)
$p_{\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi }(\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi ,A)$	PDF describing distribution of phase differences	(43)
$p_I(I_{noise})$	PDF describing intensities of random phasors	(9)
$p_I(I,I_{noise})$	PDF describing intensities of signals in presence of noise	(10)
$p_A(A,A_{noise})$	PDF describing amplitudes of signal phasors in presence of noise (Rice distribution)	(6)
$p_{ri}(r_{noise},i_{noise})$	Binormal PDF describing random phasors	(2)
$P(N)$	Penalty factor after averaging $N$ signals	(37)
PDF	Probability density function	(2,3,6,9,10)
$\varphi (\mathbf{\text{x}},t)$	Phase of phasor representing the OCT signal	(1)
$r_{noise}$	Real part of complex phasor representing the OCT noise signal	(2)
$S_{OCT}(\mathbf{\text{x}},t)$	Complex-valued OCT signal	(1)
$S_{OCT}^{(moco)}$	OCT signal after motion correction (moco)	(40,41,45)
${\sigma }^2$	Variance of real/imaginary part of $p_{ri}$	(1)
${\sigma }_A^2$	Variance of signal amplitudes for $p_A(A,A_{noise})$	(8)
${\sigma }_I^2$	Variance of signal intensity for $p_I(I,I_{noise})$	(14)
${\sigma }_{I_{noise}}^2$	Variance of noise intensity for $p_I(I_{noise})$	(12)
${\sigma }_{noise}^2$	Variance of noise amplitudes for $p_A(A_{noise})$	(5)
$SN{R}_1$	SNR of non-averaged signal	(24)
$SN{R}_{1,borderline}$	SNR1 of non-averaged signal for $SN{R}_{MAG}=SN{R}_{CPX}$	(27)
$SN{R}_{MAG}$	SNR after magnitude averaging	(25)
$SN{R}_{CPX}$	SNR after complex phasor averaging	(26)
$SN{R}_x^{\prime }$	$SN{R}_x$ with noise bias correction, ($x=1,MAG,CPX$)	(34–36)
$⟨\cdot {⟩}_{MAG}$	Quantity ⋅ after magnitude averaging	(16–19)
$⟨\cdot {⟩}_{CPX}$	Quantity ⋅ after complex averaging	(20–23)