Abstract Complex degree of coherence and power moment aspects of cylindrical sinc Gaussian beam are investigated. To do this, we have used the random phase screen approach. It is seen that on the source plane, cylindrical sinc Gaussian beam has zero on-axis intensity and the sidelobes resemble the sinc or the Gaussian profile depending on the relative magnitudes of width parameter and the source size. Upon propagation in turbulent atmosphere, the initially flat complex degree of coherence becomes curved as the beam propagates, it then partially follows the intensity profile, and eventually turns into a delta function. Power moments are evaluated up to the fifth degree and over two different aperture sizes. In the aperture size of pointlike scintillations, the behaviors of power moments are similar to those of intensity moments. In aperture averaging conditions however, the differences between the variations of moments with respect to the propagation distance and degree of the moments become much less.