A statistically repeatable, hot-air optical turbulence generator, based on the forced mixing of two air flows with different temperatures, is described. Characterization results show that it is possible to generate any turbulence strength up to {C_N}^2\Delta h\approx 6\times {10}^{-10}{\text{m}}^{\text{1}/3} , allowing a ratio of beam diameter to Fried's parameter as large as D/r_0\approx 25 for one crossing through the turbulator or D/r_0\approx 38 for two crossings. The outer scale \left(L_0\approx 133\pm 60\text{\hspace{0.17em} mm}\right) is found to be compatible with the turbulator mixing chamber size \left(170\text{\hspace{0.17em} mm}\right) , and the inner scale \left(l_0\approx 7.6\pm 3.8\text{\hspace{0.17em} mm}\right) is compatible with the values in the literature for the free atmosphere. The temporal power spectrum analysis of the centroid of the focused image shows good agreement with Kolmogorov's theory. Therefore the device can be used with confidence to emulate realistic turbulence in a controlled manner. A calibrated {C_N}^2 profile, both in layer altitude and strength, is necessary for the testing of off-axis adaptive optics correction (multiconjugate adaptive optics). Testing was done to calibrate the {C_N}^2 profile using the slope detection and ranging technique. The first results, with only one layer, show the validity of the approach and indicate that a multiple-pass scheme is viable with a few modifications of the current setup.

© 2006 Optical Society of America

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Citation lists with outbound citation links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Cited by links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Figure files are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Article level metrics are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

Related Journal Articles

• Power series evaluation of covariances for turbulence-induced phase distortions including outer scale and servo lag effects (JOSAA)
• Atmospheric characterization in the presence of strong additive measurement noise (JOSAA)
• Optimal modal wave-front compensation for anisoplanatism in adaptive optics (JOSAA)
• Halo Characteristics and Their Influence on Companion Searches at the Starfire Optical Range (AO)
• Adaptive Optics: Wave-Front Correction by use of Adaptive Filtering and Control (AO)

Related Conference Papers

• Advances in technology for atmospheric adaptive optics
• Amplitude Calibration of Adaptive Optics Supported Solar Speckle Imaging
• MOSP: A New Instrument to Measure Wavefront Outer Scale Profiles
• Field Dependent Spectral Ratios of Solar Adaptive Optics Systems
• The Colorado Peaks Experiment