The future generation of extremely large telescopes will be certainly
equipped with wide-field adaptive optics systems. All the components
of such adaptive optics systems have to be precisely specified, and
most of the technical specifications are related to atmospheric
turbulence parameters, particularly the profile of the refractive
index structure constant
C
n
2
(
h
)
. The monitor Profiler of Moon Limb
(PML) for the extraction of the
C
n
2
(
h
)
profile with high vertical
resolution for nighttime and daytime conditions by the observation of
the moon limb or sun edge has been developed and is now routinely
exploited at the Calern Observatory on the French Riviera. The PML
instrument uses a differential method with two small subapertures
through which the moon limb or sun edge are observed, leading to a
continuum of double stars that allows a scan of the whole atmosphere
with high resolution in altitude. The PML is an autonomous instrument
aided by a set of equipment such as an all-sky camera, a small
meteorological station, and an automatic system to cover the two
subapertures with solar filters to switch from night/moon to day/solar
observations. In addition, the PML instrument provides in real time a
large characterization of the atmospheric turbulence since it can
measure other turbulence parameters, such as the total seeing and the
isoplanatic angle.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.