Open AccessWide‐field Adaptive Optics correction using a single rotating laser guide star
Author(s) -
Morris T. J.,
Myers R. M.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058
H-Index - 383
eISSN - 1365-2966
pISSN - 0035-8711
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.10588.x
Subject(s) - strehl ratio , physics , laser guide star , adaptive optics , deformable mirror , wavefront , optics , guide star , wavefront sensor , telescope , laser , turbulence , field of view , meteorology
The problem of providing Adaptive Optics (AO) correction over a wide field of view is one that can be alleviated by using multiple conjugate AO (MCAO), or a low‐altitude Laser Guide Star (LGS) that is projected to an altitude below any high layer turbulence. A low‐altitude LGS can only sense wavefront distortions induced by low‐altitude turbulence, which is dominated by a strong boundary layer at the ground. Sensing only the wavefront from this layer provides an AO system with a more spatially invariant performance over the telescope field of view at the expense of overall correction. An alternative method for measuring a ground‐layer biased wavefront using a single rotating LGS is presented together with a numerical analysis of the wide‐field performance of an AO system utilizing such a LGS. System performance in H and K bands is predicted in terms of system Strehl ratio, which shows that uniform correction can be obtained over fields of view of 200 arcsec in diameter. The simulations also show that the on‐axis performance of a LGS utilizing Rayleigh backscattered light will be improved.