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

这个奖项是根据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，当光线穿过大气层时，产生的图像变得扭曲。研究太阳的太阳天文学家使用自适应光学(AO)技术来校正这些扭曲。为了做到这一点，他们分析了离研究区域非常近的一小块阳光的扭曲。然后，通过让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，以消除扭曲。当他们想要研究的太阳区域很小时，这一方法非常有效。然而，太阳黑子和太阳上其他有趣的现象足够大，这样的技术只能提供感兴趣区域的一小部分没有失真的图像。被称为多共轭自适应光学(MCAO)的更复杂的技术已经被开发出来以增加无失真的视场。与较小的望远镜相比，较新、较大的太阳望远镜能够提供更清晰的图像。但为了利用这一点，大气扭曲改正必须进一步改进。新泽西理工学院的菲利普·古德博士是加利福尼亚州大熊湖大熊太阳天文台的主任，他领导的团队正在开发一种增强的MCAO系统，该系统将使用那里新的1.6米高的新太阳望远镜提供更大范围的太阳精美图像。这一新系统将为科学家们提供更清晰的物理过程图景，这些过程产生了起源于太阳并影响地球气候和环境的“空间天气”。古德博士的项目是由NSF的主要研究仪器项目通过NSF天文科学部资助的。

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.