VLT Turbulent Environment Characterisation
Supervisor(s): Miska Le Louarn
Abstract:
This internship aims at characterising the optical turbulence environment of the VLT. Applying existing methods and data on the VLT using adaptive optics telemetry (GRAAL and GALACSI), the student will characterise the turbulence close to the ground (surface layer and dome seeing). They will participate in the collection of additional data using different settings for the louvers of the VLT, to investigate whether turbulence inside the dome can be reduced.
The intern will analyse the data and will help characterise the turbulence near the dome of the VLT in terms of additional seeing, outer scale of turbulence and turbulence evolution time, and propose methods how to improve it, as well as additional experiments to be carried out in the future the better understand the environment of the VLT.