2,221 research outputs found
Stellar scintillation in short exposure regime and atmospheric coherence time evaluation
Accurately measuring the atmospheric coherence time is still an important
problem despite a variety of applicable methods. The Multi-aperture
scintillation sensor (MASS) designed for the vertical profiling of optical
turbulence, also provides a measurements of coherence time, but its results
were found to be biased. Hence there is a need for a more robust method to
determine . The effect of smoothing the stellar scintillation by a
finite exposure of the detector is considered. The short exposure regime is
described and its limits are defined. The re-analysis of previous measurements
with the MASS is performed in order to test the applicability of this approach
in real data processing. It is shown that most of the actual measurements
satisfy the criteria of short exposures. The expressions for the mean wind
speeds in the free atmosphere from the measurement of the
scintillation indices are derived for this regime. These values provide an
estimate of the atmospheric coherence time without the need of
empirical calibration. The verification of the method based on real
measurements of the resulting are in good agreement with independent
methods.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics, 7 pages, 6
figure
Differential image motion in the short exposure regime
Whole atmosphere seeing \beta_0 is the most important parameter in site
testing measurements. Estimation of the seeing from a variance of differential
image motion is always biased by a non-zero DIMM exposure, which results in a
wind smoothing. In the paper, the wind effects are studied within short
exposure approximation, i.e. when the wind shifts turbulence during exposure by
distance lesser than device aperture. The method of correction for this effect
on the base of image motion correlation between adjacent frames is proposed. It
is shown that the correlation can be used for estimation of the mean wind speed
V_2 and atmospheric coherence time \tau_0. Total power of longitudinal and
transverse image motion is suggested for elimination of dependence on the wind
direction. Obtained theoretical results were tested on the data obtained on
Mount Shatdjatmaz in 2007--2010 with MASS/DIMM device and good agreement was
found.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA
Comparison of the scintillation noise above different observatories measured with MASS instruments
Scintillation noise is a major limitation of ground base photometric
precision. An extensive dataset of stellar scintillation collected at 11
astronomical sites world-wide with MASS instruments was used to estimate the
scintillation noise of large telescopes in the case of fast photometry and
traditional long-exposure regime. Statistical distributions of the
corresponding parameters are given. The scintillation noise is mostly
determined by turbulence and wind in the upper atmosphere and comparable at all
sites, with slightly smaller values at Mauna Kea and largest noise at Tolonchar
in Chile. We show that the classical Young's formula under-estimates the
scintillation noise.The temporal variations of the scintillation noise are also
similar at all sites, showing short-term variability at time scales of 1 -- 2
hours and slower variations, including marked seasonal trends (stronger
scintillation and less clear sky during local winter). Some correlation was
found between nearby observatories.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics, 14 pages, 11
figure
Accurate seeing measurements with MASS and DIMM
Astronomical seeing is quantified by a single parameter, turbulence integral,
in the framework of the Kolmogorov turbulence model. This parameter can be
routinely measured by a Differential Image Motion Monitor, DIMM. A new
instrument, Multi-Aperture Scintillation Sensor (MASS), permits to measure the
seeing in the free atmosphere above ~0.5km and, together with a DIMM, to
estimate the ground-layer seeing. The absolute accuracy of both methods is
studied here using analytical theory, numerical simulation, and experiments. A
modification of the MASS data processing to compensate for partially saturated
scintillation is developed. We find that the DIMM can be severely biased by
optical aberrations (e.g. defocus) and propagation. Seeing measurements with
DIMM and MASS can reach absolute accuracy of ~10% when their biases are
carefully controlled. Pushing this limit to 1% appears unrealistic because the
seeing itself is just a model-dependent parameter of a non-stationary random
process.Comment: 13 pages, 14 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA
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