Filtering techniques to enhance optical turbulence forecast performances at short time-scales
Date Issued
2020
Author(s)
Abstract
The efficiency of the management of top-class ground-based astronomical facilities supported
by adaptive optics (AO) relies on our ability to forecast the optical turbulence (OT) and a
set of relevant atmospheric parameters. Indeed, in spite of the fact that the AO is able to
achieve, at present, excellent levels of wavefront corrections (a Strehl ratio up to 90 per cent
in H band), its performances strongly depend on the atmospheric conditions. Knowing in
advance the atmospheric turbulence conditions allows an optimization of the AO use. It has
already been proven that it is possible to provide reliable forecasts of the OT (C2
N profiles
and integrated astroclimatic parameters such as seeing, isoplanatic angle, wavefront coherence
time, etc.) for the next night. In this paper, we prove that it is possible to improve the forecast
performances on shorter time-scales (order of 1 or 2 h) with consistent gains (order of 2–8)
employing filtering techniques that make use of real-time measurements. This has permitted
us to achieve forecasts accuracies never obtained before and reach a fundamental milestone
for the astronomical applications. The time-scale of 1 or 2 h is the most critical one for an
efficient management of the ground-based telescopes supported by AO. We implemented this
method in the operational forecast system of the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT), named
Advanced LBT Turbulence and Atmosphere (ALTA) Center that is, at our knowledge, the
first operational system providing forecasts of turbulence and atmospheric parameters at short
time-scales to support science operations.
Volume
492
Start page
140
Issn Identifier
0035-8711
Ads BibCode
2020MNRAS.492..140M
Rights
open.access
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Loading...
Name
masciadri_et_al_2020.pdf
Description
Pdf editoriale
Size
2.31 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
a4887b37b5b4d093ffc3c3888413c079