Adaptive optics parameters connection to wind speed at the Teide Observatory

García-Lorenzo, B.; Eff-Darwich, A.; Fuensalida, J. J.; Castro-Almazán, J.
Bibliographical reference

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 397, Issue 3, pp. 1633-1646.

Advertised on:
8
2009
Number of authors
4
IAC number of authors
3
Citations
29
Refereed citations
27
Description
Current projects for large telescopes demand a proper knowledge of atmospheric turbulence to design efficient adaptive optics systems in order to reach large Strehl ratios. However, the proper characterization of the turbulence above a particular site requires long-term monitoring. Because of the lack of long-term information on turbulence, high-altitude winds (in particular winds at the 200mbar pressure level) were proposed as a parameter for estimating the total turbulence at a particular site, with the advantage of records of winds going back several decades. We present the first complete study of atmospheric adaptive optics parameters above the Teide Observatory (Canary Islands, Spain) in relation to wind speed. On-site measurements of C2N(h) profiles (more than 20200 turbulence profiles) from G-SCIDAR (Generalized Scintillation Detection and Ranging) observations and wind vertical profiles from balloons have been used to calculate the seeing, the isoplanatic angle and the coherence time. The connection of these parameters to wind speeds at ground and at 200mbar pressure level are shown and discussed. Our results confirm the well-known high quality of the Canary Islands astronomical observatories.