Large amounts of Adaptive-Optics (AO) control loop data and telemetry are currently inaccessible to end-users. Broadening access to those data has the potential to change the AO landscape on many fronts, addressing several use-cases such as derivation of the system's PSF, turbulence characterisation and optimisation of system control. We address one of the biggest obstacles to sharing these data: the lack of standardisation, which hinders access. We propose an object-oriented Python package for AO telemetry, whose data model abstracts the user from an underlining archive-ready data exchange standard based on the Flexible Image Transport System (FITS). Its design supports data from a wide range of existing and future AO systems, either in raw format or abstracted from actual instrument details. We exemplify its usage with data from active AO systems on 10m-class observatories, of which two are currently supported (AOF and Keck), with plans for more.
@article{arxiv.2207.14344,
title = {Towards virtual access of adaptive optics telemetry data},
author = {Tiago Gomes and Carlos Correia and Lisa Bardou and Olivier Beltramo-Martin and Thierry Fusco and Caroline Kulcsár and Timothy Morris and Nuno Morujão and Benoît Neichel and James Osborn and Paulo Garcia},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2207.14344},
year = {2022}
}