{"id":{"repo_id":"durham","oai_identifier":"oai:etheses.durham.ac.uk:513"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/durham/oai:etheses.durham.ac.uk:513","repository":{"repo_id":"durham","name":"Durham University","base_url":"http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/cgi/oai2"},"display":{"title":"Profiling the turbulent atmosphere and novel correction techniques for imaging and photometry in astronomy","abstract":"The turbulent atmosphere has two detrimental effects in astronomy. The phase aberration induced by the turbulence broaden the point spread function (PSF) and limits the resolution for imaging. If there is strong turbulence high in the atmosphere then these phase aberration propagate and develop into intensity fluctuations (scintillation). This thesis describes three novel instruments related to these problems associated with atmospheric turbulence. The first is an optical turbulence profiler to measure the turbulence strength and its position within the atmospheric surface layer in real-time. The instrument is a development of the slope detection and ranging (SLODAR) method. Results from the prototype at Paranal Observatory are discussed. An instrument to improve the PSF for imaging is also discussed. The instrument works by adaptively blocking the telescope pupil to remove areas which are the most out of phase from the mean. This acts to flatten the wavefront and can therefore be used after an adaptive optics system as an additional clean up, or stand alone on a telescope as a relatively affordable and easy way to improve the PSF. The third instrument reduces the scintillation noise for high precision fast photometry. Simulation results show that it is possible to reduce the scintillation noise to a level where the measurements are photon noise dominated.","abstract_html":"The turbulent atmosphere has two detrimental effects in astronomy. The phase aberration induced by the turbulence broaden the point spread function (PSF) and limits the resolution for imaging. If there is strong turbulence high in the atmosphere then these phase aberration propagate and develop into intensity fluctuations (scintillation). This thesis describes three novel instruments related to these problems associated with atmospheric turbulence. The first is an optical turbulence profiler to measure the turbulence strength and its position within the atmospheric surface layer in real-time. The instrument is a development of the slope detection and ranging (SLODAR) method. Results from the prototype at Paranal Observatory are discussed. An instrument to improve the PSF for imaging is also discussed. The instrument works by adaptively blocking the telescope pupil to remove areas which are the most out of phase from the mean. This acts to flatten the wavefront and can therefore be used after an adaptive optics system as an additional clean up, or stand alone on a telescope as a relatively affordable and easy way to improve the PSF. The third instrument reduces the scintillation noise for high precision fast photometry. Simulation results show that it is possible to reduce the scintillation noise to a level where the measurements are photon noise dominated.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Osborn, James"],"institution":"Durham University","degree_name":"PhD","degree_level":"doctoral","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2010,"date_issued":"2010","date_published":"2010","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:11:09Z","subjects":[],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":null,"outbound_label":null,"outbound_source":null},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Osborn, James"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2010"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2010"]},{"key":"dc:publisher.department","label":"Dc Publisher Department","values":["Physics, Department of"]},{"key":"dc:publisher.institution","label":"Dc Publisher Institution","values":["Durham University"]},{"key":"dc:relation.isreferencedby","label":"Dc Relation Isreferencedby","values":["https://etheses.durham.ac.uk/id/eprint/513/"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"dc:type.qualificationlevel","label":"Dc Type Qualificationlevel","values":["doctoral"]},{"key":"dc:type.qualificationname","label":"Dc Type Qualificationname","values":["PhD"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://etheses.durham.ac.uk/id/eprint/513/1/thesis.pdf"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["The turbulent atmosphere has two detrimental effects in astronomy. The phase aberration induced by the turbulence broaden the point spread function (PSF) and limits the resolution for imaging. If there is strong turbulence high in the atmosphere then these phase aberration propagate and develop into intensity fluctuations (scintillation). This thesis describes three novel instruments related to these problems associated with atmospheric turbulence. The first is an optical turbulence profiler to measure the turbulence strength and its position within the atmospheric surface layer in real-time. The instrument is a development of the slope detection and ranging (SLODAR) method. Results from the prototype at Paranal Observatory are discussed. An instrument to improve the PSF for imaging is also discussed. The instrument works by adaptively blocking the telescope pupil to remove areas which are the most out of phase from the mean. This acts to flatten the wavefront and can therefore be used after an adaptive optics system as an additional clean up, or stand alone on a telescope as a relatively affordable and easy way to improve the PSF. The third instrument reduces the scintillation noise for high precision fast photometry. Simulation results show that it is possible to reduce the scintillation noise to a level where the measurements are photon noise dominated."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["text"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Profiling the turbulent atmosphere and novel correction techniques for imaging and photometry in astronomy"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:creator":["Osborn, James"],"dc:date":["2010"],"dc:date.issued":["2010"],"dc:description.abstract":["The turbulent atmosphere has two detrimental effects in astronomy. The phase aberration induced by the turbulence broaden the point spread function (PSF) and limits the resolution for imaging. If there is strong turbulence high in the atmosphere then these phase aberration propagate and develop into intensity fluctuations (scintillation). This thesis describes three novel instruments related to these problems associated with atmospheric turbulence. The first is an optical turbulence profiler to measure the turbulence strength and its position within the atmospheric surface layer in real-time. The instrument is a development of the slope detection and ranging (SLODAR) method. Results from the prototype at Paranal Observatory are discussed. An instrument to improve the PSF for imaging is also discussed. The instrument works by adaptively blocking the telescope pupil to remove areas which are the most out of phase from the mean. This acts to flatten the wavefront and can therefore be used after an adaptive optics system as an additional clean up, or stand alone on a telescope as a relatively affordable and easy way to improve the PSF. The third instrument reduces the scintillation noise for high precision fast photometry. Simulation results show that it is possible to reduce the scintillation noise to a level where the measurements are photon noise dominated."],"dc:format":["text"],"dc:identifier.uri":["https://etheses.durham.ac.uk/id/eprint/513/1/thesis.pdf"],"dc:publisher.department":["Physics, Department of"],"dc:publisher.institution":["Durham University"],"dc:relation.isreferencedby":["https://etheses.durham.ac.uk/id/eprint/513/"],"dc:title":["Profiling the turbulent atmosphere and novel correction techniques for imaging and photometry in astronomy"],"dc:type":["Thesis"],"dc:type.qualificationlevel":["doctoral"],"dc:type.qualificationname":["PhD"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:11:09Z"}