For the last few years, Laboratory of Astrophysics of Marseille has been carrying out several R and D activities in Adaptive Optics (AO) instrumentation for Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs). In the European ELT (D = 40 m) framework, both theoretical and experimental studies are jointly led. A new theoretical approach for AO control command law with large degrees of freedom is being developed: it is based on the use of Local Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter (Local ETKF). In parallel, an experimental multi-purpose AO bench is mounted to allow the validation of new wave-front sensing and correction concepts dedicated to the next generation of ELTs. All the main AO components, with a large number of spatial (up to thousand) and/or temporal (up to 1.5 kHz) frequencies, are available. From different combinations of these AO elements, several correction and sensing (low order and high order frequencies) studies are possible. Our AO bench is combining different corrector mirrors (MEMS deformable mirror from Boston Micromachines and Spatial Light Modulator from Holoeye) which can be used with Shack-Hartmann and Pyramid Wave Front Sensors (respectively, SHWFS and PWFS). For this last type of sensor (PWFS), we will use the world’s fastest and most sensitive camera system OCAM2 (developed at LAM), to demonstrate the concept of a fast and hyper-sensitive PWFS (up to 100x100 sub-pupils) dedicated to the first generation instruments for ELTs.
For the last few years, LAM has been carrying out several R&D activities in Adaptive Optics (AO) instrumentation for
Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs). In the European ELT framework, a multi-purpose AO bench is developed to allow
the experimental validation of new instrumental concepts dedicated to the next generation of ELTs. It is based on the use
of a Shack-Hartmann wave-front sensor in front of a 140 actuators micro-deformable mirror (Boston Micromachines),
dedicated to “low orders” modes, while a Pyramid wave-front sensor (PWFS) will be combined to a Liquid Crystal
Spatial Light Modulator for “high orders” correction. Both systems could be merged in a two stages AO concept
allowing to study the coupling of a telescope pre-correction using a dedicated large M4 deformable mirror and a post
focal high order AO system. Analysis and optimisation of the spatial and temporal splits of the AO correction between
the two systems is therefore essential.
Finally, we will use the world’s fastest and most sensitive camera system OCAM (developed at LAM) coupled with the
pyramid , to demonstrate the concept of a fast and hyper-sensitive PWFS (up to 100x100 sub-pupils) dedicated to the
first generation instruments for ELTs.
Optimal control laws for new Adaptive Optics (AO) concepts in astronomy require the implementation of techniques
intended for real time identification of the atmospheric turbulence. Contrary to the Optimized Modal
Gain Integrator (OMGI), it has been proved that the Kalman Filter (KF) based optimal control law enables
estimation and prediction of the turbulent phase from the measurements and corrects efficiently the different
modes of this phase in the case of a wide field tomographic AO system. But using such kind of processes, for
any Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), will be extremely difficult because of the numerical complexity of the
computations involved in the matrices calculations as well as the recording of large covariance matrices. A new
control law is proposed, based on the Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter (ETKF) and its efficient variation,
Local ETKF (recently developed for geophysics applications), allowing to dramatically reduce the computation
burden for an ELT implementation and also to deal with non stationary behaviors of the turbulence.
KEYWORDS: Adaptive optics, Wavefronts, Device simulation, Computer simulations, Large telescopes, Telescopes, Digital signal processing, Optical simulations, Control systems, Wavefront sensors
The control of AO systems dedicated to ELT is a difficult problem related to the large number of degrees of freedom. The
standard and most used adaptive optics AO control starting from the integrator to the LQG are not useful in such a case.
In fact, for future Extremely Large Telescope (ELT's) the number of degrees of freedom is very large related to the large
diameter of the ELT's and the emergence of new architectures for the AO systems. So that the necessary computational
power for real time control RTC on such systems is currently unattainable when using these control methods.
In this paper we present an Adaptive Optics E2E simulator which includes a very fast wave front reconstruction which is
dedicated for the Extremely Large Telescope. This code takes advantages of the SOY library, where we build the interaction
and reconstruction matrix in a sparse format. Based on a script for solving linear systems by conjugate gradient with Jacobi
preconditioner , our reconstruction matrix is computed very fast.
Moreover, we present the reconstruction results for a 42 m and so the characterization time of the code.
The wavefront sensor [WFS] is a key element of an Adaptive Optics [AO] system. It gives access to a direct
measurement of the turbulent phase, its curvature or its slope, from which the mirror voltages are computed. The
ability of the system to correct efficiently the atmospheric turbulence is strongly dependent on the performance
of the WFS in estimating the turbulent phase. The Shack-Hartmann [SH] WFS has been for a long time the
standard used in AO systems. In 1996, it has been proposed1 a new generation WFS, the pyramid WFS. It is a
focal plane WFS, based on the principle of a Foucault knife-edge. It has been demonstrated that it provides a
consistent gain with respect to the Shack-Hartmann.2,5-7 More recently, improvements were proposed to increase
the pyramid performance.3, 4 On the framework of the developpement of extremely large telescopes, the interest
of a pyramid wave front sensor appears clearly. But its behaviour with laser guide stars [LGS], most probably
necessary in any Extremely Large Telescope [ELT], is still relatively unknown. Some WFS dedicated to LGS
wave front sensing has already been proposed8,9 but a full study of the pyramid WFS behaviour is still necessary.
This work's aim is to bring answers to this topic.
EAGLE is an instrument for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). EAGLE will be installed at the Gravity
Invariant Focal Station of the E-ELT, covering a field of view of 50 square arcminutes. Its main scientific drivers are the
physics and evolution of high-redshift galaxies, the detection and characterization of first-light objects and the physics of
galaxy evolution from stellar archaeology. These key science programs, generic to all ELT projects and highly
complementary to JWST, require 3D spectroscopy on a limited (~20) number of targets, full near IR coverage up to 2.4
micron and an image quality significantly sharper than the atmospheric seeing. The EAGLE design achieves these
requirements with innovative, yet simple, solutions and technologies already available or under the final stages of
development. EAGLE relies on Multi-Object Adaptive Optics (MOAO) which is being demonstrated in the laboratory
and on sky. This paper provides a summary of the phase A study instrument design.
A method that has been followed to produce performance estimates for the adaptive optics (AO) aspect of the
EAGLE instrument proposed for the European Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) (E-ELT) using Durham Monte-Carlo simulation code is presented. These simulations encompass a wide range of possible configurations for EAGLE, including multi-object adaptive optics (MOAO), segmented multi-conjugate adaptive optics (MCAO)
and other more novel techniques. Particular emphasis is placed on the techniques used to enable a good simulation
turn-around rate, allowing the large parameter space associated with optimising high performance AO systems
to be explored. Performance estimate results for some AO system configurations are also provided.
At Dome C, Antarctica, the whole turbulence is reduced to a boundary layer of about 50 meters. WHITE is a project of an infrared survey based on a 2-m telescope using a ground-layer adaptive-optics instrument to obtain high angular resolution on a wide field of view. Simulation results obtained both analytically and from a numerical end-to-end approach are presented and then compared.
Direct detection of exo-planets from the ground will become a reality with the advent of a new class of extreme-adaptive optics instruments that will come on-line within the next few years on 8-10 meters class telescopes. One major technical challenge in reaching the requisite high contrast at small angles is the sensing and control of wave front errors which becomes even more challenging in the case of the extremely large telescopes. Extensive computer simulations have shown the ability of such systems to deliver high Strehl ratio correction expected (within EPICS preliminary study for instance) but few experiments dedicated to ELTs have been realized so far. This paper will discuss the nature of this problem, and describe recent laboratory results from the LAM Extreme Adaptive Optics bench whose purpose is to provide validation of the numerical simulations as well as to be a testbed to develop concepts, architectures, and control algorithms for the future ELTs extreme adaptive optics systems. This test bench is optimized for ultra-high contrast applications requiring XAO with realistic telescope conditions reproduced by star and turbulence generators and including segmented primary mirror. We present here preliminary results, showing an RMS wavefront control at level smaller than 10 nm rms for static aberrations.
We present the Gattini project: a multisite campaign to measure the optical sky properties above the two high altitude
Antarctic astronomical sites of Dome C and Dome A. The Gattini-DomeC project, part of the IRAIT site testing
campaign and ongoing since January 2006, consists of two cameras for the measurement of optical sky brightness, large
area cloud cover and auroral detection above the DomeC site, home of the French-Italian Concordia station. The cameras
are transit in nature and are virtually identical except for the nature of the lenses. The cameras have operated
successfully throughout the past two Antarctic winter seasons and here we present the first results obtained from the
returned 2006 dataset. The Gattini-DomeA project will place a similar site testing facility at the highest point on the
Antarctic plateau, Dome A, with observations commencing in 2008. The project forms a small part of a much larger
venture coordinated by the Polar Research Institute of China as part of the International Polar Year whereby an
automated site testing facility called PLATO will be traversed into the DomeA site. The status of this exciting and
ambitious project with regards to the Gattini-DomeA cameras will be presented.
What is a good astronomical site? It must be cold, dry, stable, dark. There is one site on Earth that qualifies : Antarctica.
To make the best use of these characteristics, we propose a
Wide-field (0.5-degree in diameter) High-resolution (~0.3
arcsec using GLAO from the ice), IR (0.8-5 μm) 2.4-m TElescope (WHITE). WHITE will be dedicated to carrying out
surveys: a deep extragalactic field over a few square degrees, a survey of the Magellanic Clouds. By adding one more
year, WHITE would be able to add one kilo-degree survey.
EAGLE is a multi-object 3D spectroscopy instrument currently under design for the 42-metre European Extremely Large
Telescope (E-ELT). Precise requirements are still being developed, but it is clear that EAGLE will require (~100 x 100
actuator) adaptive optics correction of ~20 - 60 spectroscopic subfields distributed across a ~5 arcminute diameter field
of view. It is very likely that LGS will be required to provide wavefront sensing with the necessary sky coverage. Two
alternative adaptive optics implementations are being considered, one of which is Multi-Object Adaptive Optics
(MOAO). In this scheme, wavefront tomography is performed using a set of LGS and NGS in either a completely open-loop
manner, or in a configuration that is only closed-loop with respect to only one DM, probably the adaptive M4 of the
E-ELT. The fine wavefront correction required for each subfield is then applied in a completely open-loop fashion by
independent DMs within each separate optical relay. The novelty of this scheme is such that on-sky demonstration is
required prior to final construction of an E-ELT instrument. The CANARY project will implement a single channel of an
MOAO system on the 4.2m William Herschel Telescope. This will be a comprehensive demonstration, which will be
phased to include pure NGS, low-order NGS-LGS and high-order woofer-tweeter NGS-LGS configurations. The LGSs
used for these demonstrations will be Rayleigh systems, where the variable range-gate height and extension can be used
to simulate many of the LGS effects on the E-ELT. We describe the requirements for the various phases of MOAO
demonstration, the corresponding CANARY configurations and capabilities and the current conceptual designs of the
various subsystems.
EAGLE is an instrument under conceptual study for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). EAGLE will be
installed at the Gravity Invariant Focal Station of the E-ELT, covering a field of view between 5 and 10 arcminutes. Its
main scientific drivers are the physics and evolution of high-redshift galaxies, the detection and characterization of first-light
objects and the physics of galaxy evolution from stellar archaeology. The top level requirements of the instrument
call for 20 spectroscopic channels in the near infrared, assisted by Adaptive Optics. Several concepts of the Target
Acquisition sub-system have been studied and are briefly presented. Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics (MCAO) over a
segmented 5' field has been evaluated and compared to Multi-Object Adaptive Optics (MOAO). The latter has higher
performance and is easier to implement, and is therefore chosen as the baseline for EAGLE. The paper provides a status
report of the conceptual study, and indicates how the future steps will address the instrument development plan due to be
completed within a year.
The Gattini cameras are two site testing instruments for the measurement of optical sky brightness, large area cloud cover and auroral detection of the night sky above the high altitude Dome C site in Antarctica. The cameras have been in operation since January 2006. The cameras are transit in nature and are virtually identical, both adopting Apogee Alta ccd detectors. The camera called Gattini-SBC images a 6 degree field centred on the South Pole, an elevation of 75° at the Dome C site. The camera takes repeated images of the same 6 degree field in the Sloan g' band (centred on 477nm) and, by adopting a lens with sufficiently long focal length, one can integrate the sky background photons and directly compare to the equivalent values of the stars within the field. The second camera, called Gattini-allsky, incorporates a fish-eye lens and images ~110 degree field centred on local zenith. By taking frequent images of the night sky we will obtain long term cloud cover statistics, measure the sky background intensity as a function of solar and lunar altitude and phase and directly measure the spatial extent of bright aurora if present and when they occur. An overview of the project is presented together with preliminary results from data taken since operation of the cameras in January 2006.
Profiling the ground layer turbulence for daytime seeing applications using an array of photodiodes has been documented
in literature, in particular by Beckers who coined the term "SHABAR" for the instrument, short for Shadow Band
Ranger. In this case the photodiodes measure the variation of solar intensity as a function of time and the correlation of
scintillation between spatially separated scintillometers can be used to derive structure constant values for the lower
100m or so. More recently SHABARs have been applied to night time atmospheric profiling using the moon as the
extended source, such as the Pan-STARRS lunar SHABAR, a more challenging venture given the lower structure
constant values and therefore higher sensitivity required. We present a summary of the lunar SHABAR currently
operating at the Antarctic site of Dome C, one of the three Gattini site testing instruments for the Italian-led IRAIT
project. The SHABAR was designed with low noise performance in mind and for low temperature operation. Ground
layer profiling is of particular importance at the Dome C site during winter-time as it is known the majority of the
integrated seeing measured at ground level is created in a turbulent layer very close to the ground.
We present a laboratory setup of a Ground-Layer Adaptive Optics system. This system is a scaled-down version of the MCAO system of MAD (a MCAO system for the VLT) / LINC-NIRVANA (a Fizeau Imager for the LBT) and measures the wavefront aberrations with 4 pyramids in a layer-oriented fashion with optical co-addition. The laboratory setup contains besides the wavefront-sensing unit a telescope-simulator, a dynamic turbulence generator and a Deformable Mirror for the wavefront correction. We describe the overall system and its single components, open- and closed-loop measurements of the characteristics of a system working in GLAO mode and first results when using a Kalman filter for the control of the wavefront reconstruction process.
ONIRICA, standing for OWL Near InfraRed Imaging Camera, is a pre-Phase A, conceptual design study to assess the feasibility of an imaging camera for a 100m class telescope. In this paper the main scientific driven and the adopted preliminary choices for its optomechanical implementation are reviewed.
We present recent developments of the CAOS "system", an IDL-based Problem Solving Environment (PSE) whose original aim was to define and simulate as realistically as possible the behavior of a generic adaptive optics (AO) system, from the atmospheric propagation of light, to the sensing of the wave-front aberratoins and the correction through a deformable mirror. The different developments made through the last 7 years result in a very versatile numerical tool complete of a global graphical interface (the CAOS Application Builder), and different specialized scientific packages: the original one designed for AO system simulations (the Software Package CAOS), an image reconstruction package with interferometric capabilities (the Software Package AIRY), and a more recent one being built and dedicated to multiconjugate AO (the Software Package MAOS). We present the status of the whole CAOS "system"/PSE, together with the most recent developments, including parallelization strategy considerations, examples of application, and plans for the next future.
We first recall in this paper the optimal closed loop control law for multiconjugate adaptive optics [MCAO]. It is based on a Kalman filter and a feedback control. The prior model on which is based the Kalman filter is developped in a state-space representation and the differences in the model between Star Oriented [SO] MCAO and Layer Oriented [LO] MCAO are presented. This approach allows to take into account the wavefront sensing noise, the turbulence profil model, the Kolmogorov statistics and a temporal model of the turbulence. Simulation results are given in SO MCAO and the Kalman based approach is compared to the more standard Optimized Modal Gain Integrator [OMGI].
MAD5 is a Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics (MCAO) system conceived to demonstrate the feasibility of MCAO on the sky. The wave front sensor part is divided in two channels: a Shack-Hartmann sensor and a Layer Oriented sensor. We will describe the construction of the latter one. Assembly, integration and test of the instrument are the first steps for ESO acceptance, before integrating the Layer Oriented sensor with the other components of MAD. We will show qualitative and quantitative results of optical and mechanical tests: in particular we will describe the alignment of the references selection unit, constituted by sixteen motorized linear positioners and eight star enlargers, of the beam compressor and of the two re-imaging objectives, each one conjugated to a different altitude. Being the pyramid the core of this kind of wave front sensor, we will focus our attention on its construction difficulties and we will discuss all the optical tests made to choose the best ones to be installed on the wave front sensor. Finally we will present the sensor performance showing the first open loop results.
MCAO is a very promising technique to increase the AO corrected field of view. By now, this method was mainly studied for astronomical purposes. In case of horizontal or slant path propagation, the effects of anisoplanatism and scintillation are quite stronger than for astronomy: MCAO seems specially well-suited in this context. Therefore, many authors propose to use MCAO for laser beam control. Imaging is another potential applications: we have studied the theoretical performance of MCAO for extended source observation. We will present the results of this study.
We propose in this paper an optimal closed loop control law for multiconjugate adaptive optics (MCAO), based on a Kalman filter and a feedback control. The so-called open loop optimal phase reconstruction is recalled. It is based on a Maximum A Posteriori (MAP) approach. This approach takes into account wavefront sensing noise and also makes use of a turbulence profile model and Kolmogorov statistics. We propose a closed-loop modelization via a state-space representation. A Kalman filter is used for the phase reconstruction. This approach is a closed loop generalization of the MAP open loop estimator. It uses the same spatial prior in addition with a temporal model of the turbulence. Results are compared with the Optimized Modal Gain Integrator approach in the classical adaptive optics case and in an MCAO-like case.
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