ATI: Development of High-Order Adaptive Optics for the 1.6 Meter Solar Telescope in Big Bear

ATI：为大熊座1.6米太阳望远镜开发高阶自适应光学器件

• 批准号: 0905279
• 负责人: Philip Goode
• 金额: $ 89.58万
• 依托单位: New Jersey Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-08-15 至 2013-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0905279&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: ATI; Development; Order; Adaptive; Optics

Solar astronomers are scientists who observe and study the Sun, our local star. Because it is so close and bright, they are able to acquire much more detailed information about the Sun than night-time astronomers can of more distant stars. Understanding the physical processes of the Sun thus has profound benefit to the understanding of all stars, the building blocks of galaxies and of much of the visible matter in the universe. One of the primary goals of solar astronomy is to understand, in the greatest possible detail, how the magnetic fields and other processes in the Sun affect the emission of energetic particles and of heat, light, and higher energy forms of electromagnetic radiation such as ultraviolet light and X-rays. These emitted particles and light are interesting to study from a purely scientific point of view, but they also have great relevance to life on Earth. The Sun creates "space weather" - the environment surrounding planet Earth. Understanding and predicting how observed changes in the Sun's characteristics will affect the Earth's environment is crucial to mankind.In order to see the fine detail that can reveal the secrets of the Sun's magnetism, it is necessary to have a solar telescope with very high resolving power. However, telescopes on the ground must observe the Sun through the interference of the Earth's atmosphere. As light passes through the atmosphere it gets spread out by turbulence due to wind shear and changes in temperature and pressure within the atmospheric layers. These effects reduce the resolving power of Earth-based telescopes. This difficulty can be overcome to a large extent by relatively new techniques employing Adaptive Optics (AO) where several small patches on the sun are monitored for changes induced by our atmosphere. These changes are rapidly detected (over 100 times per second) and the correlation among the patches tells us how the Earth's atmosphere is distorting the light. This information is then fed into special adjustable optics in the telescope to restore the image to (nearly) what could be seen from above the Earth's atmosphere.Dr. Philip Goode of the New Jersey Institute of Technology and his team are developing a sophisticated AO system for the New Solar Telescope at Big Bear Solar Observatory in the San Bernadino Mountains in Southern California. This telescope is located on a pier literally in Big Bear Lake where the lake's water ensures that the air surrounding the telescope is stable. This new telescope with Adaptive Optics will provide the best resolved images of the Sun ever delivered on the shortest time scales ever measured. The analysis of these data is sure to lead to a better understanding of our local star and of the space weather it causes.

太阳天文学家是科学家，他们观察和研究我们当地的恒星太阳。 因为它是如此的近距离和明亮，所以他们能够获得有关太阳的更详细的信息，而不是夜间天文学家更遥远的恒星。 因此，了解太阳的物理过程对理解所有恒星，星系的基础以及宇宙中许多可见物质具有深远的好处。 太阳天文学的主要目标之一是最大程度地了解太阳中的磁场和其他过程如何影响能量颗粒的发射以及热，光和较高能量的电磁辐射，例如紫外线和X射线。 这些发出的颗粒和光很有趣，可以从纯粹的科学角度进行研究，但它们与地球上的生命也有很大的意义。 太阳创造了“太空天气” - 地球周围环境。 了解和预测可观察到的太阳特征的变化将如何影响地球环境对人类至关重要。为了查看可以揭示太阳磁性秘密的细节，有必要拥有具有很高分辨力的太阳能望远镜。 但是，地面上的望远镜必须通过地球大气的干扰观察太阳。 随着光线穿过大气，由于风剪切以及大气层内温度和压力的变化，它会因湍流而散布。这些效果降低了基于地球的望远镜的解决力。通过使用自适应光学（AO）相对较新的技术，可以在很大程度上克服这一困难，在该技术中，可以监视太阳上的几个小斑块，以确保我们的大气引起的变化。 这些变化迅速被检测到（每秒超过100次），并且斑块之间的相关性告诉我们地球大气如何使光扭曲。 然后，将这些信息馈入望远镜中的特殊可调光学器件中，以将图像恢复到（几乎）从地球大气层上方看到的东西。新泽西理工学院及其团队的菲利普·古德（Philip Goode）正在为南加州圣贝纳迪诺山脉（San Bernadino Mountains）的Big Bear Solar天文台开发一个精致的AO系统，以为新的太阳能望远镜提供了精致的AO系统。 该望远镜位于大熊湖上的码头上，湖水可确保望远镜周围的空气稳定。 这款带有自适应光学的新望远镜将提供有史以来最短时间尺度传递的太阳的最佳分辨图像。 对这些数据的分析肯定会更好地了解我们本地恒星及其引起的空间天气。