MRI: Development of Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics for the 1.6 Meter Solar Telescope in Big Bear

MRI：为大熊号 1.6 米太阳望远镜开发多共轭自适应光学器件

• 批准号: 0959187
• 负责人: Philip Goode
• 金额: $ 237.51万
• 依托单位: New Jersey Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-03-15 至 2013-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0959187&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: MRI; Development; Multi; Conjugate; Adaptive

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Earth's atmosphere is turbulent and as light passes through it the resulting images become distorted. Solar astronomers who study the sun, our local star, use the techniques of Adaptive Optics (AO) to correct for these distortions. To do this they analyze the distortions of a small patch of sunlight very close to the region being studied. The corrections necessary to remove the distortions are then made by passing the telescope's incoming light through special deformable mirrors. This works very well when the region of the sun they want to study is small. However, sunspots and other interesting phenomena on the sun are large enough that such techniques will only deliver an undistorted image of a small part of the region of interest. More sophisticated techniques, called Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics (MCAO) have been developed to increase the distortion-free field of view. Newer, and larger, solar telescopes are capable of delivering sharper images than their smaller counterparts. But in order to take advantage of this the atmospheric distortion corrections must be improved even further. Dr. Philip Goode of the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Director of the Big Bear Solar Observatory in Big Bear Lake, California, leads a team that is developing an enhanced MCAO system that will deliver exquisite images of a much larger area of the sun using the new 1.6-meter New Solar Telescope there. This new system will provide scientists with a much clearer picture of the physical processes that give rise to "space weather" that originates in the sun and affects earth's climate and environment. Dr. Goode's project is funded by NSF's Major Research Instrumentation program through the NSF Division of Astronomical Sciences.

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。地球的大气层是动荡的，当光线穿过它时，产生的图像会变得扭曲。太阳天文学家研究太阳，我们的本地星星，使用自适应光学（AO）的技术来纠正这些扭曲。 为了做到这一点，他们分析了非常接近研究区域的一小块阳光的扭曲。 然后，通过使望远镜的入射光通过特殊的可变形反射镜来进行必要的校正，以消除失真。 当他们想要研究的太阳区域很小时，这非常有效。 然而，太阳黑子和其他有趣的现象是足够大的，这样的技术将只能提供一个感兴趣的区域的一小部分的未失真的图像。 更复杂的技术，称为多共轭自适应光学（MCAO）已经开发出来，以增加无失真的视野。 较新、较大的太阳望远镜能够提供比小型望远镜更清晰的图像。 但是为了利用这一点，必须进一步改进大气畸变校正。 新泽西理工学院的Philip Goode博士和位于加州大熊湖的大熊太阳天文台的主任领导着一个团队，该团队正在开发一种增强的MCAO系统，该系统将使用新的1.6米新太阳望远镜提供更大面积的太阳的精美图像。 这个新系统将为科学家提供一个更清晰的物理过程的图像，这些物理过程产生了源于太阳并影响地球气候和环境的“空间天气”。 Goode博士的项目由NSF的主要研究仪器计划通过NSF天文科学部资助。