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

太阳天文学家是观察和研究太阳的科学家，太阳是我们的本地恒星。因为它离太阳很近，而且很明亮，所以他们能够获得关于太阳的更详细的信息，而夜间天文学家无法获得更远的恒星。因此，了解太阳的物理过程对理解所有恒星、星系的组成部分和宇宙中许多可见物质都有深远的好处。太阳天文学的主要目标之一是尽可能详细地了解太阳中的磁场和其他过程如何影响高能粒子、热、光和更高能量形式的电磁辐射(如紫外线和X射线)的发射。从纯科学的角度研究这些发射的粒子和光是很有趣的，但它们也与地球上的生命有很大的相关性。太阳创造了“太空天气”--地球周围的环境。了解和预测观测到的太阳特征变化将如何影响地球环境对人类来说至关重要。为了看到揭示太阳磁性秘密的细节，有必要拥有一台分辨率很高的太阳望远镜。然而，地面上的望远镜必须通过地球大气层的干扰来观测太阳。当光穿过大气层时，由于风的切变以及大气层内温度和压力的变化，它被湍流传播开来。这些效应降低了地面望远镜的分辨率。这一困难在很大程度上可以通过采用自适应光学(AO)的相对较新的技术来克服，在这种技术中，太阳上的几个小斑块被监测到我们的大气引起的变化。这些变化被迅速探测到(每秒超过100次)，这些斑块之间的相关性告诉我们地球大气层是如何扭曲光线的。然后，这些信息被送入望远镜中的特殊可调光学元件，以将图像恢复到(几乎)从地球大气层上方所能看到的水平。新泽西理工学院的菲利普·古德和他的团队正在为位于南加州圣伯纳迪诺山脉的大熊太阳天文台的新太阳望远镜开发一种复杂的AO系统。这个望远镜位于大熊湖的一个码头上，那里的湖水确保了望远镜周围的空气是稳定的。这台带有自适应光学的新望远镜将在有史以来最短的时间尺度上提供有史以来最好的太阳分辨率图像。对这些数据的分析肯定会让我们更好地了解我们的本地恒星及其引起的太空天气。

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.