Atmospheric Turbulence Profiling For Astronomy
Dr. Saavi Perera
UCSD
Characterising atmospheric seeing and optical turbulence is crucial for designing and operating modern ground-based optical telescopes. Temporal and spatial refractive index fluctuations of the atmosphere result in phase delays of different parts of the wavefront, thereby inducing speckling, movement and intensity fluctuations of an image. Designated external turbulence profiling instruments provide long-term statistics of astronomical observatories as well as real-time estimation of important parameters such as seeing and coherence time. In this talk, the effects of atmospheric turbulence on astronomical imaging will be discussed. In addition, the Shack-Hartmann Image Motion Monitor (SHIMM), a low-cost portable profiling instrument, will be presented. The SHIMM methodology is also being applied to the NIckel Telescope at the Lick Observatory.
Hosted by Prof. Chilcote