Measurements of optical turbulence on the Antarctic Plateau and their impact on astronomical observations.
Atmospheric turbulence results taken on the Antarctic plateau are presented in this thesis. Covering two high sites: South Pole and Dome C, this work describes their seeing and meteorological conditions. Using an acoustic sounder to study the turbulence profile of the first kilo- metre of the atmosp...
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UNSW, Sydney
2005
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ftunswworks:oai:unsworks.library.unsw.edu.au:1959.4/20852 2023-05-15T13:52:09+02:00 Measurements of optical turbulence on the Antarctic Plateau and their impact on astronomical observations. Travouilon, Tony 2005 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/20852 https://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/bitstreams/3dfe38f9-45ae-4653-a4c4-61272cebae4e/download https://doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/21957 EN eng UNSW, Sydney http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/20852 https://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/bitstreams/3dfe38f9-45ae-4653-a4c4-61272cebae4e/download https://doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/21957 open access https://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2 CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/au/ free_to_read CC-BY-NC-ND Astrophysics atmospheric turbulence site testing Antarctica Observations doctoral thesis http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06 2005 ftunswworks https://doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/21957 2022-08-09T07:41:00Z Atmospheric turbulence results taken on the Antarctic plateau are presented in this thesis. Covering two high sites: South Pole and Dome C, this work describes their seeing and meteorological conditions. Using an acoustic sounder to study the turbulence profile of the first kilo- metre of the atmosphere and a Differential Image Motion Monitor (DIMM) to investigate the integrated seeing we are able to deduce important at- mospheric parameters such as the Fried parameter (r0) and the isoplanatic angle (µ0). It was found that at the two sites, the free atmosphere (above the first kilometer) was extremely stable and contributed between 0.2" and 0.3" of the total seeing with no evidence of jet or vortex peaks of strong turbulence. The boundary layer turbulence is what differentiates the two sites. Located on the Western flank of the plateau, the South Pole is prone to katabatic winds. Dome C on the other hand is on a local maximum of the plateau and the wind conditions are amongst the calmest in the world. Also linked to the topography is the vertical extent of the temperature in- version that is required to create optical turbulence. At the South Pole the inversion reaches 300 m and only 30 m at Dome C. This difference results in relatively poor seeing conditions at the South Pole (1.8") and excellent at Dome C (0.27"). The strong correlation between the seeing and the ground layer meteorological conditions indicates that even better seeing could be found at Dome A, the highest point of the plateau. Having most of the turbulence near the ground is also incredibly ad- vantageous for adaptive optics. The isoplanatic angle is respectively 3.3" and 5.7" for the South Pole and Dome C. This is significantly larger than at temperate sites where the average isoplanatic angle rarely exceeds 2". This means that wider fields can be corrected without the complication of conjugation to specific layers. For such purpose the potential is even more interesting. We show that ground conjugated adaptive optics would decrease the ... Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica South pole South pole UNSW Sydney (The University of New South Wales): UNSWorks Antarctic South Pole The Antarctic |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
UNSW Sydney (The University of New South Wales): UNSWorks |
op_collection_id |
ftunswworks |
language |
English |
topic |
Astrophysics atmospheric turbulence site testing Antarctica Observations |
spellingShingle |
Astrophysics atmospheric turbulence site testing Antarctica Observations Travouilon, Tony Measurements of optical turbulence on the Antarctic Plateau and their impact on astronomical observations. |
topic_facet |
Astrophysics atmospheric turbulence site testing Antarctica Observations |
description |
Atmospheric turbulence results taken on the Antarctic plateau are presented in this thesis. Covering two high sites: South Pole and Dome C, this work describes their seeing and meteorological conditions. Using an acoustic sounder to study the turbulence profile of the first kilo- metre of the atmosphere and a Differential Image Motion Monitor (DIMM) to investigate the integrated seeing we are able to deduce important at- mospheric parameters such as the Fried parameter (r0) and the isoplanatic angle (µ0). It was found that at the two sites, the free atmosphere (above the first kilometer) was extremely stable and contributed between 0.2" and 0.3" of the total seeing with no evidence of jet or vortex peaks of strong turbulence. The boundary layer turbulence is what differentiates the two sites. Located on the Western flank of the plateau, the South Pole is prone to katabatic winds. Dome C on the other hand is on a local maximum of the plateau and the wind conditions are amongst the calmest in the world. Also linked to the topography is the vertical extent of the temperature in- version that is required to create optical turbulence. At the South Pole the inversion reaches 300 m and only 30 m at Dome C. This difference results in relatively poor seeing conditions at the South Pole (1.8") and excellent at Dome C (0.27"). The strong correlation between the seeing and the ground layer meteorological conditions indicates that even better seeing could be found at Dome A, the highest point of the plateau. Having most of the turbulence near the ground is also incredibly ad- vantageous for adaptive optics. The isoplanatic angle is respectively 3.3" and 5.7" for the South Pole and Dome C. This is significantly larger than at temperate sites where the average isoplanatic angle rarely exceeds 2". This means that wider fields can be corrected without the complication of conjugation to specific layers. For such purpose the potential is even more interesting. We show that ground conjugated adaptive optics would decrease the ... |
format |
Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis |
author |
Travouilon, Tony |
author_facet |
Travouilon, Tony |
author_sort |
Travouilon, Tony |
title |
Measurements of optical turbulence on the Antarctic Plateau and their impact on astronomical observations. |
title_short |
Measurements of optical turbulence on the Antarctic Plateau and their impact on astronomical observations. |
title_full |
Measurements of optical turbulence on the Antarctic Plateau and their impact on astronomical observations. |
title_fullStr |
Measurements of optical turbulence on the Antarctic Plateau and their impact on astronomical observations. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Measurements of optical turbulence on the Antarctic Plateau and their impact on astronomical observations. |
title_sort |
measurements of optical turbulence on the antarctic plateau and their impact on astronomical observations. |
publisher |
UNSW, Sydney |
publishDate |
2005 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/20852 https://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/bitstreams/3dfe38f9-45ae-4653-a4c4-61272cebae4e/download https://doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/21957 |
geographic |
Antarctic South Pole The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic South Pole The Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica South pole South pole |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica South pole South pole |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/20852 https://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/bitstreams/3dfe38f9-45ae-4653-a4c4-61272cebae4e/download https://doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/21957 |
op_rights |
open access https://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2 CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/au/ free_to_read |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY-NC-ND |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/21957 |
_version_ |
1766256417179697152 |