Abstract A new ring Airy Gaussian (RAiG) vortex beam generation method by coherent combination of Gaussian beam array has been proposed. To validate the feasibility of this method, the propagation properties of the RAiG vortex beam and the coherent combining beam in vacuum have been studied and analyzed. From the comparisons of the intensity distributions and phase patterns along the propagation path, we can conclude that the coherent combining beam has the same properties as those of the ideal RAiG vortex beam. So this method can be used to obtain RAiG vortex beam in practice. Then the general analytical expression of the root-mean-square (RMS) beam width of the RAiG vortex beam, which is appropriately generated by coherent combining method, through anisotropic non-Kolmogorov turbulence has been derived. The influence of anisotropic turbulence on RMS beam width of the generated RAiG vortex beam has been numerically calculated. This generation method has good appropriation to the ideal RAiG vortex beam and is very useful for deriving the analytical expression of propagation properties through a random media. The conclusions are useful in practical applications, such as laser communication and remote sensing systems.