Richard Wilson, Department of Physics, University of Durham, UK, Tim Butterley, Department of Physics, University of Durham, UK, Jun Ho Lee, Kongju National Univ., YoungSoo Choi, Agency for Defense Development, South Korea, Sooman Lee, Doosan DST
Keywords: Seeing, SLODAR, Robotic Operation
Abstract:
We had developed a robotic SLODAR (SLOpe Detection And Ranging) for characterization of the vertical profile of atmospheric optical turbulence at the Bohyun observatory, South Korea. The SLODAR had been developed in partnership between Kongju National Univ. South Korea and Durham Univ., U.K. The SLODAR instrument consists of a robotic 50 cm telescope feeding into a pair of Shack Hartmann wavefront sensors. SLODAR analysis of the wavefront sensor data yields turbulence profiles of the surface layer of turbulence, with the vertical resolution depending on the separation and elevation of the target stars.The total seeing ( r0 ) is also measured, and by subtracting the directly measured turbulence from the total the unresolved strength (above the maximum sensing altitude) can also be determined. The instrument has two observing modes, “wide” and “narrow” depending on the angular sepration of pairs of stars. In wide mode regime, narrower targets are chosen ( 2 ~ 4 arcmin) such that the ground layer profile is measured up to ~500m. In narrow mode, very narrow targets (10 ~ 15 arcsec) are measured to provide the turbulence profile with coarse resolution up to ~6km. The automated SLODAR turbulence profiler at the Boyun Observatory is currently under remote and robotic operation since last June. We reports herein the development of the SLODAR with first observation results.
Date of Conference: September 15-18, 2015
Track: Poster