A mobile adaptive optics system for compensation of atmospheric turbulence-induced phase distortions

High-resolution astronomical telescope systems used for observational tasks require sufficiently large apertures to enhance the spatial resolution. Due to the propagation through turbulent layers of the atmosphere the distorted wavefront implicates a broadening of the imaged spot and hence a loss in optical resolution. The improvement in visual resolution by applying adaptive optics (AO) has been successfully demonstrated in an imaging setup. The requirements on such a mobile and low cost AO differs from well known high end AO supported astronomical telescopes. A reference signal which is probing the wavefront distortion is realized with the help of a coherent infrared laser beam emanating from the object. Quantitative measurements of the wavefront distortions and of the modulations transfer function (MTF) will be presented. To cumulate sufficient phase sufficient phase distortion along the horizontal propagation length of 130m the beam path was located 1.2 m over ground. Corresponding measurements of turbulence parameter and weather conditions were taken to explain the characteristics and experimental results of the adaptive optics high resolution imaging system.