Arctic turbulence profiler

极地地区有可能提供地球上最好的天文观测条件。南极洲已被证明为在广泛的波长范围内进行观测提供了出色的条件，是许多新的望远镜项目的首选地点。种种迹象表明，加拿大的北极可能提供与南极相同的科学效益，同时更容易进入。然而，北极潜在地点的天文质量从未被探索过。埃尔斯米尔岛拥有世界上最北端的山脉，山峰高达2600米。这是一个非常干燥的地方，很可能是理想的天文学。我们的团队正在进行一项计划，以评估北方埃尔斯米尔岛几个山顶遗址的质量。为此，在三个山顶地点设立了小型现场测试站。这些观测站包括一个全天空天空照相机、气象仪器和一个小型风力发电机。为此，我们计划增加一种新型的仪器，在不列颠哥伦比亚省大学开发。北极湍流廓线仪将利用月光测量这些地点上方大气湍流的强度和分布。这种湍流是地面望远镜拍摄的图像变得模糊的原因，它的测量是评估未来可能建立的任何天文观测站性能的关键。北极湍流轮廓仪是一种小型仪器，包含敏感的硅光电二极管，可以测量落在其上的月光强度。通过测量不同探测器在月球“闪烁”时的相关性，我们能够重建几百米以下大气湍流的分布，并确定该地点上方整个大气的总体影响。

The polar regions have the potential to provide the best astronomical observing conditions on Earth. Antarctica has been shown to offer outstanding conditions for observations over a wide range of wavelengths and is the favoured site for a number of new telescope projects. There is every indication that Canada's Arctic may provide the same scientific benefit as the Antarctic, while at the same time being more accessible. However, the astronomical quality of potential sites in the Arctic have never been explored.Ellesmere Island contains the northernmost mountain range in the world, with peaks as high as 2600 metres. It is a very dry place and may well be ideal for astronomy. Our team is conducting a program to assess the quality of several mountain top sites in Northern Ellesmere Island. To this end, small site-testing stations have been put in place on three mountain-top sites. These stations include an all-sky sky camera, weather instruments, and a small wind generator. To this we plan to add a new type of instrument, developed at the University of British Columbia. The Arctic Turbulence Profiler will use moonlight to measure the strength and distribution of atmospheric turbulence above the sites. This turbulence is responsible for the blurring of images taken by ground-based telescopes, and its measurement is key to assessing the performance of any future astronomical observatory that might be established.The Arctic Turbulence Profiler is a small instrument that contains sensitive silicon photodiodes that measure the intensity of moonlight falling on them. By measuring correlations in the "twinkling" of the moon, as seen by the different detectors, we are able to reconstruct the distribution of atmospheric turbulence in the lower several hundred metres, as well as determine the total effect of the whole atmosphere above the site.