Grants related:
General
Characterising the quality of observations at the Observatorio del Teide and the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos has become one of the IAC's most high-priority tasks in view of the need to select sites for large telescopes (ELTs - Extremely Large Telescopes). SCIDAR is an instrument that measures the profiles of atmospheric turbulence by observing binary stars. This allows location information to be obtained for the upper layers of the turbulence, together with information about the movement and speed of the turbulent layers. The addition of a Shack-Hartmann sensor allows wavefront structure to be detected at the same time as the vertical structure of the turbulence. This is important because the ability to measure the wavefront horizontally in several conjugated planes (distinct heights) makes it possible to estimate the external scale of the turbulence. The aim of this project is the development of a SCIDAR and a Wavefront Sensor to carry out characterisation campaigns in the atmosphere over the observatories.