High-resolution mesospheric sodium observations for extremely large telescopes

Thomas Pfrommer; Paul Hickson

doi:10.1117/12.857703

14 July 2010 High-resolution mesospheric sodium observations for extremely large telescopes

Thomas Pfrommer, Paul Hickson

Proceedings Volume 7736, Adaptive Optics Systems II; 773620 (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.857703
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2010, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Variations in density structure and altitude of mesospheric sodium impact the performance of adaptive optics systems employing sodium laser guide stars. The associated wave-front errors grow as the square of the telescope aperture and will be very significant for the next generation of large-aperture ground-based optical/infrared telescopes. To support the adaptive optics program for the Thirty Meter Telescope and European Extremely Large Telescope, we are conducting a program of sodium monitoring using a high-resolution sodium lidar system on the 6-meter Large Zenith Telescope (LZT). Located at 49°N latitude, the LZT lidar system provides density profiles with spatial and temporal resolution sampling of 4.8 m and 20 ms. In this paper we report highlights of results obtained over two years of observations.

Citation Download Citation

Thomas Pfrommer and Paul Hickson "High-resolution mesospheric sodium observations for extremely large telescopes", Proc. SPIE 7736, Adaptive Optics Systems II, 773620 (14 July 2010); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.857703

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