Next Generation MCAO System For Large Aperture Solar Telescopes

大口径地面太阳望远镜解决了英国（和国际）太阳物理社区在太阳发电机、磁通量出现、能量传输和磁驱动活动等研究项目中的关键科学问题；支撑太空天气的过程。它们将通过其前所未有的空间、光谱和时间分辨率，加上高光谱偏振精度，提供革命性的进步，使对太阳大气基本过程的研究成为前所未有的。多重共轭自适应光学（MCAO）是一种技术，它将使这些望远镜能够在直径达一弧分的视场中提供太阳表面的最高空间分辨率图像。然而，在强烈的日间湍流条件下，可见光波长操作所施加的性能要求远比同等的夜间观测更为严格，并且满足所需的空间和时间分辨率的挑战推动了当前相机技术和数据管理的界限。本提案探讨了一些关键问题，这些问题将支持Daniel K Inouye太阳望远镜（DKIST）和欧洲太阳望远镜（EST）现有的宽视场AO仪器开发计划，重点是提高科学生产力。除了对实现最高空间分辨率至关重要的AO方面外，我们还解决了滤镜和相机设计的相关问题，这些问题也需要满足最高的空间和时间尺度，以及管理相关数据量的相应挑战。该提案旨在针对目前没有被英国拥有世界领先研究团队的EST和DKIST团队深入研究的研究课题。

Large aperture ground-based solar telescopes address key science questions that are at the heart of the UK (and international) Solar Physics community's research programmes in solar dynamos, magnetic flux emergence, energy transport and magnetically-driven activity; the process that underpin space weather. They will provide revolutionary advances through their unprecedented spatial, spectra and temporal resolution, coupled with high spectro-polarimetric accuracy, enabling unprecedented studies of fundamental processes in the solar atmosphere. Multiple Conjugate Adaptive Optics (MCAO) is a technology that will enable these telescopes to deliver the highest spatial resolution images of the surface of the Sun across fields of view up to an arcminute in diameter. However, the performance requirements imposed by the visible wavelength operation in strong daytime turbulence conditions are far more stringent than for equivalent night-time observing and the challenges of meeting the required spatial and temporal resolutions push the boundaries of current camera technologies and data management. This proposal investigates some of the key issues that will support the existing wide-field AO instrumentation development programs at the Daniel K Inouye solar telescope (DKIST) and the European Solar Telescope (EST) with a strong focus on enhancing scientific productivity. Alongside the AO aspects that are critical to achieving the highest spatial resolutions we also address the related questions of filter and camera design that are also required to meet the highest spatial and temporal scales, and the corresponding challenge of managing the associate data volumes. The proposal has been designed to target research topics that are currently not being investigated in depth by the EST and DKIST teams where the UK has world-leading research teams.