Demonstrating 24-hour continuous vertical monitoring of atmospheric optical turbulence

Griffiths, Ryan; Osborn, James; Farley, Ollie; Butterley, Tim; Townson, Matthew J.; Wilson, Richard

doi:10.1364/oe.479544

Demonstrating 24-hour continuous vertical monitoring of atmospheric optical turbulence Thumbnail

Authors

Ryan Griffiths

Dr James Osborn james.osborn@durham.ac.uk
Associate Professor

Mr Ollie Farley o.j.d.farley@durham.ac.uk
Post Doctoral Research Associate

Mr Timothy Butterley timothy.butterley@durham.ac.uk
Post Doctoral Research Associate

Mr Matthew Townson matthew.townson@durham.ac.uk
Academic Visitor

Dr Richard Wilson r.w.wilson@durham.ac.uk
Associate Professor

Abstract

We report what is believed to be the first example of fully continuous, 24-hour vertical monitoring of atmospheric optical turbulence. This is achieved using a novel instrument, the 24-hour Shack-Hartmann Image Motion Monitor (24hSHIMM). Optical turbulence is a fundamental limitation for applications such as free-space optical communications, where it limits the achievable bandwidth, and ground-based optical astronomy, restricting the observational precision. Knowledge of the turbulence enables us to select the best sites, design optical instrumentation and optimise the operation of ground-based optical systems. The 24hSHIMM estimates the vertical optical turbulence coherence length, time, angle and Rytov variance from the measurement of a four-layer vertical turbulence profile and a wind speed profile retrieved from meteorological forecasts. To illustrate our advance we show the values of these parameters recorded during a 36-hour, continuous demonstration of the instrument. Due to its portability and ability to work in stronger turbulence, the 24hSHIMM can also operate in urban locations, providing the field with a truly continuous, versatile turbulence monitor for all but the most demanding of applications.

Citation

Griffiths, R., Osborn, J., Farley, O., Butterley, T., Townson, M. J., & Wilson, R. (2023). Demonstrating 24-hour continuous vertical monitoring of atmospheric optical turbulence. Optics Express, 31(4), 6730-6740. https://doi.org/10.1364/oe.479544

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Jan 15, 2023
Online Publication Date	Feb 9, 2023
Publication Date	2023
Deposit Date	Feb 14, 2023
Publicly Available Date	Feb 20, 2023
Journal	Optics Express
Publisher	Optica
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	31
Issue	4
Pages	6730-6740
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1364/oe.479544
Public URL	https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1183088
Related Public URLs	https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.07612

Files

Published Journal Article (3.1 Mb)
PDF

Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
Published by Optica Publishing Group under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.<br /> Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title,<br /> journal citation, and DOI.