Ground layer atmospheric turbulence significantly affects the performance of ground-based large aperture optical telescopes and the design of associated adaptive optics systems. This paper conducts a comparative analysis of the Low-Layer SCIDAR (LOLAS) and Lunar Scintillometer (LuSci) techniques for characterizing turbulence profiles at the ground layer. A testing campaign took place at the Xuyi Observation Station of Purple Mountain Observatory in China during October 2023. The paper presents ground layer turbulence profiles simultaneously obtained by LOLAS and LuSci, revealing a consist distribution. The average height of various percentiles of ground layer strength, as measured by both instruments, demonstrates a high degree of agreement. Comparison of integrated seeing at different altitudes (50m, 100m, 150m, 200m, and 250m) from the ground exhibit a strong agreement, with LuSci recording approximately 0.3′′ smaller values compared to LOLAS. LOLAS tends to underestimate seeing with prolonged exposure times. It is noted that approximately 75% of the ground layer (0-250 meters) turbulence strength originates below 50 meters. These methods can be directly used for site-testing for the proposed Chinese Large Optical / Infrared Telescope.
The study introduces a technique and apparatus for assessing the atmospheric optical turbulence profile, utilizing the ring image obtained at the focal plane of a telescope fitted with a cone lens. Positioning of the cone lens is possible either ahead of the telescope or its focal plane, with the first option providing an expanded field of view and enhanced imaging efficiency. The algorithmic software analyzes the achromatic ring image from this optical arrangement to determine angular frequency signals indicative of wavefront scintillation. Subsequently, these signals facilitate the derivation of statistical data essential for analyzing turbulence, simultaneously forming a theoretical formula for the weight function that elucidates their correlation with turbulence. Inversion is used to restore the turbulence profile, by analyzing the link between the wavefront scintillation signal's angular power spectrum and the turbulence's intensity and weight function at a certain altitude. Remarkably, the suggested optical apparatus shows an absence of chromatic aberration throughout its full spectral span (400-1000nm). Given that the achromatic annular image's imaging surface aligns with the telescope's focal plane and the lens barrel is made of carbon fiber, the ring image's image quality remains unaffected by significant temperature variations, eliminating the necessity for additional focusing equipment. This method provides an economical solution with an uncomplicated hardware framework that is straightforward to set up and modify.
Solar Scintillometer (SoSci) and Lunar Scintillometer (LuSci) can efficiently assess the near-ground optical turbulence, which are crucial characteristic parameters for astronomical observatory sites. This paper presents the development and comparative analysis of two side-by-side SoSci / LuSci systems, aimed at determining the accuracy of turbulence data and its dependence on instrument calibration. Experiments conducted at both the park area of Nanjing Institute of Astronomical Optics & Technology and the Xuyi Observation Station of Purple Mountain Observatory in China demonstrate that atmospheric turbulence primarily affects solar or lunar flux fluctuations in the low-frequency range. The differences in the refractive index structure constant values obtained from the scintillometers with the identical configurations are minimal at the pivot points. Similarly, there are negligible differences in turbulence integrals, seeing values, and atmospheric coherence length values between them. Theoretical analysis and numerical computation of the weight function indicate that employing a normalized disk instead of the actual sun or moon image will lead the scintillometer to overestimate the turbulence near the ground. If the out scale of turbulence considered for data processing is larger or smaller than the actual value, the scintillometer will theoretically underestimate or overestimate high-altitude turbulence, respectively. However, the out scale of turbulence has minimal impact on the scintillometer's ability to assess low-altitude turbulence, making it reliable for profiling ground layer turbulence. Furthermore, the temporal trends observed in the seeing measurements via the Lunar Scintillometer are in good agreement with those from the Differential Image Motion Monitor, indicating that ground layer turbulence dominates the total turbulence.
KEYWORDS: Telescopes, CCD cameras, Data processing, Astronomy, Stars, Scintillation, Control systems, Charge-coupled devices, Signal attenuation, Space telescopes
The extreme environment of Antarctic greatly benefits astronomical observations. Site testing works already show the
excellent seeing and transmission on Dome C. And the higher, colder inland plateau Dome A is widely predicted as even
better astronomical site than Dome C. Preliminary site testing carried out since the beginning of 2008 shows that Dome
A has lower boundary layer and lower precipitable water vapour. Now the automated seeing monitor is urgently needed
to quantify the site's optical character which is necessary for the telescope design and deployment. We modify the
commercial telescopes with diameter of 35cm to function as site testing DIMM and make it monitor both seeing and
isoplanatic angle at the same time automatically on Dome A at different height. Part of the processed data will be
transferred back by Iridium satellite network every day. The first DIMM will be deployed on Dome A in early 2011.
An iterative deconvolution algorithm is presented in detail which utilizes regularization to combine
maximum-likelihood (ML) estimate of convolution error and several physical constraints to build error
function. The physical constraints used in this algorithm include positivity, band-limit information and the
information of multiple frames. By minimizing the combined error metric of individual ones, the object can
be expected to be recovered from the noisy data. In addition, numerical simulation of Phase Screen distorted
by atmospheric turbulence following the Kolmogorov spectrum is also made to generate the PSFs which are
used to simulate the degraded images.
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