Solar Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics Experiments on the 1.6 Meter Solar Telescope in Big Bear

大熊号1.6米太阳望远镜的太阳多共轭自适应光学实验

• 批准号: 1407597
• 负责人: Philip Goode
• 金额: $ 70.01万
• 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: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-08-15 至 2017-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1407597&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Solar; Multi; Conjugate; Adaptive; Optics

This project will carry out experiments to study the performance of advanced strategies for adaptive optics, a cutting-edge modern technology that uses fast-moving deformable mirrors to rapidly compensate for the fluctuations in image quality produced by the shimmering atmosphere. Adaptive optics has flourished in recent years, delivering dramatically sharper images but usually only over a rather limited portion of the sky. The technical innovations to be investigated under this program will utilize multiple deformable mirrors optically matched to different layers of the turbulent atmosphere, and this "multi-conjugate" approach will result in high-quality corrected images over a substantially larger region of the sky.The adaptive optics system at the 1.6 meter solar telescope at Big Bear, CA, has delivered high-quality solar images in a single-deformable-mirror mode, providing detailed information about complex spatial structures on the surface of the sun at unprecedented spatial scales. The system features three deformable mirrors, each having 357 actuators, and multiple pupil positions in which the deformable mirrors may be placed. When considering the more complex architecture of an adaptive optics system capable of a multi-conjugate observing mode, a number of technical issues have yet to be addressed. These issues include such fundamental questions as the optimum placement in the beam train of deformable mirrors and wavefront sensors. The current project will address these issues directly, experimentally. A number of science goals, including the onset and evolution of solar flares, flare triggering mechanisms, and magnetic reconnection events, require diffraction-limited observations over the large field of view promised by the multi-conjugate observing mode.In addition to providing training for the next generation of instrumentation scientists, these investigations by their potentially path-finding nature will provide a vital form of broader impacts in advancing the art of adaptive optics at many observatories, for both solar and night-time observations.Funding for this project is being provided by NSF's Division of Astronomical Sciences through its Advanced Technologies and Instrumentation program.

该项目将进行实验，研究先进的自适应光学策略的性能，这是一种尖端的现代技术，使用快速移动的可变形反射镜来快速补偿由闪烁的大气产生的图像质量波动。自适应光学近年来蓬勃发展，提供的图像明显更清晰，但通常只覆盖相当有限的一部分天空。根据这一计划，将研究的技术创新将利用与湍流大气的不同层光学匹配的多个可变形反射镜，这种“多共轭”方法将在更大的天空区域产生高质量的校正图像。位于加利福尼亚州大熊市的1.6米太阳望远镜的自适应光学系统以单一可变形反射镜模式提供了高质量的太阳图像，以前所未有的空间尺度提供了关于太阳表面复杂空间结构的详细信息。该系统具有三个可变形反射镜，每个具有357个致动器，以及可放置可变形反射镜的多个光瞳位置。当考虑能够进行多共轭观测模式的自适应光学系统的更复杂的体系结构时，一些技术问题尚未解决。这些问题包括诸如可变形反射镜和波前传感器在光束序列中的最佳位置等基本问题。目前的项目将以实验的方式直接解决这些问题。许多科学目标，包括太阳耀斑的开始和演化、耀斑触发机制和磁重联事件，都需要在多共轭观测模式承诺的大视野内进行衍射受限观测。除了为下一代仪器科学家提供培训外，这些潜在的寻路性质的调查将为促进许多天文台的自适应光学艺术提供重要形式的更广泛的影响，包括太阳和夜间观测。该项目的资金由美国国家科学基金会天文科学部通过其先进技术和仪器计划提供。