Related papers: Seeing, Wind and Outer Scale Effects on Image Qual…

We present results from our two year study of ground-layer turbulence as seen through the 6.5-meter Magellan Telescopes at Las Campanas Observatory. The experiment consists of multiple, moderate resolution, Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensors…

Atmospheric optical turbulence seriously limits the performance of high angular resolution instruments. An 8-night campaign of measurements was carried out at the LAMOST site in 2011, to characterize the optical turbulence. Two instruments…

Cerro Las Campanas located at Las Campanas Observatory (LCO) in Chile has been selected as the site for the Giant Magellan Telescope. We report results obtained since the commencement, in 2005, of a systematic site testing survey of…

We present results from the first year of a campaign to characterize and monitor the optical turbulence profile at the SAAO Sutherland observing station in South Africa. A MASS-DIMM (MultiAperture Scintillation Sensor - Differential Image…

This paper analyses 3.5 years of site testing data obtained at Dome C, Antarctica, based on measurements obtained with three DIMMs located at three different elevations. Basic statistics of the seeing and the isoplanatic angle are given, as…

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…

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,…

Seeing, the angular size of stellar images blurred by atmospheric turbulence, is a critical parameter used to assess the quality of astronomical sites. Median values at the best mid-latitude sites are generally in the range of…

The accuracy of ground-based astronomical photometry is limited by two factors: photon statistics and stellar scintillation arising when star light passes through Earth's atmosphere. This paper examines the theoretical role of the outer…

Since its beginnings, diffraction-limited ground-based adaptive optics (AO) imaging has been limited to wavelengths in the near IR ({\lambda} > 1 micron) and longer. Visible AO ({\lambda} < 1 micron) has proven to be difficult because…

The optical turbulence conditions as measured between 2004 until end of 2008 above Cerro Tololo, their seasonal as well as nocturnal behavior are presented. A comparison with the MASS-DIMM system of the Thirty Meter Telescope site testing…

Measurements of the optical turbulence profile above Siding Spring Observatory were conducted during 2005 and 2006. This effort was largely motivated by the need to predict the statistical performance of adaptive optics at Siding Spring.…

Results of 3-month continuous monitoring of turbulence profile and seeing at Cerro Tololo (Chile) in May-July 2002 are presented. Some 28000 low-resolution profiles were measured by a new MASS single-star turbulence monitor, accompanied by…

Results of deploying a Differential Image Motion Monitor (DIMM) and a DIMM combined with a Multi-Aperture Scintillation Sensor (MASS/DIMM) are reported for campaigns in 2011 and 2012 on the roof of the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research…

We outline a technique called Dual Plane Imaging which should significantly improve images which would otherwise be blurred due to atmospheric turbulence. The technique involves capturing all the spatial, directional and temporal…

Results of 2005-2007 campaign of measurement of the optical turbulence vertical distribution above Mt. Maidanak are presented. Measurements are performed with the MASS (Multi-Aperture Scintillation Sensor) device which is widely used in…

In this paper I investigate what factors -- both observational and physical -- can change the measured slope of the observed 21cm HI power spectrum. The following effects can make the observed turbulence appear two dimensional rather than…

Deflection of light along the optical path is a major source of image degradation for ground-based telescopes. Methods have been developed to measure upper atmospheric seeing based on models of the turbulence in the atmosphere, but due to…

We investigate how to quantitatively model the observed differential image motion (DIM) in relative astrometric observations. As a test bed we used differential astrometric observations from the FORS2 camera of the Very Large Telescope…

In this contribution we evaluate the impact of filtering techniques in enhancing the accuracy of forecasts of optical turbulence and atmospheric parameters critical for ground-based telescopes. These techniques make use of the data…