Overview
- Describes in detail star image measurement procedures for characterizing atmospheric beam-propagation and imaging paths
- Provides simplified formulae for making rapid, on-site characterizations of star images and atmospheric paths using only a pocket calculator
- Includes numerous graphical illustrations and tables to allow readers to digest and exploit the subject area quantitatively
- Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras
Part of the book series: Springer Series in Optical Sciences (SSOS, volume 196)
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Table of contents (17 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
This book lays out a new, general theory of light propagation and imaging through Earth’s turbulent atmosphere. Current theory is based on the – now widely doubted – assumption of Kolmogorov turbulence. The new theory is based on a generalized atmosphere, the turbulence characteristics of which can be established, as needed, from readily measurable properties of point-object, or star, images.
The pessimistic resolution predictions of Kolmogorov theory led to lax optical tolerance prescriptions for large ground-based astronomical telescopes which were widely adhered to in the 1970s and 1980s. Around 1990, however, it became clear that much better resolution was actually possible, and Kolmogorov tolerance prescriptions were promptly abandoned. Most large telescopes built before 1990 have had their optics upgraded (e.g., the UKIRT instrument) and now achieve, without adaptive optics (AO), almost an order of magnitude better resolution than before.
As well as providing a more comprehensive and precise understanding of imaging through the atmosphere with large telescopes (both with and without AO), the new general theory also finds applications in the areas of laser communications and high-energy laser beam propagation.
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: General Theory of Light Propagation and Imaging Through the Atmosphere
Authors: T. Stewart McKechnie
Series Title: Springer Series in Optical Sciences
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18209-4
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Physics and Astronomy, Physics and Astronomy (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-37316-4Published: 22 October 2016
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-18209-4Published: 05 August 2015
Series ISSN: 0342-4111
Series E-ISSN: 1556-1534
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXIX, 624
Number of Illustrations: 177 b/w illustrations, 13 illustrations in colour
Topics: Classical Electrodynamics, Measurement Science and Instrumentation, Astronomy, Observations and Techniques, Atmospheric Sciences, Mathematical Methods in Physics