The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) is a dedicated high-contrast imaging facility instrument. After six years, GPI has helped establish that the occurrence rate of Jovian planets peaks near the snow. GPI 2.0 is expected to achieve deeper contrasts, especially at small inner working angles, to extend GPI’s operating range to fainter stars, and to broaden its scientific capabilities. GPI shipped from Gemini South in 2022 and is undergoing an upgrade as part of a relocation to Gemini North. We present the status of the upgrades including replacing the current wavefront sensor with an EMCCD-based pyramid wavefront sensor, adding a broadband low spectral resolution prism, new apodized-pupil Lyot coronagraph designs, upgrades of the calibration wavefront sensor and increased queue operability. Further we discuss the progress of reintegrating these components into the new system and the expected performance improvements in the context of GPI 2.0’s enhanced science capabilities.
The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) is a high contrast imaging instrument designed to directly detect and characterize young Jupiter-mass exoplanets. After six years of operation at Gemini South in Chile, the instrument is being upgraded and moved to Gemini North in Hawaii as GPI 2.0. As part of this upgrade, several improvements will be made to the adaptive optics (AO) system. This includes replacing the current Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor (WFS) with a pyramid wavefront sensor (PWFS) and a custom EMCCD. These changes are expected to increase GPI’s sky coverage by accessing fainter targets, improving corrections on fainter stars and allowing faster and ultra-low latency operations on brighter targets. The PWFS subsystem is being independently built and tested to verify its performance before its integration into the GPI 2.0 instrument. In this paper, we will present the design and pre-integration test plan of the PWFS.
GPI is a facility instrument designed for the direct detection and characterization of young Jupiter mass exoplanets. GPI has helped establish that the occurrence rate of Jovian planets peaks near the snow line (~3 AU), and falls off toward larger separations. This motivates an upgrade of GPI to achieve deeper contrasts, especially at small inner working angles, to extend GPI’s operating range to fainter stars, and to broaden its scientific capabilities, all while leveraging its historical success. GPI was packed and shipped in 2022, and is undergoing a major science-driven upgrade. We present the status and purpose of the upgrades including an EMCCD-based pyramid wavefront sensor, broadband low spectral resolution prisms, new apodized-pupil Lyot coronagraph designs, upgrades of the calibration wavefront sensor and increased queue operability. We discuss the expected performance improvements and enhanced science capabilities to be made available in 2024.
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