FADE, an instrument to measure the atmospheric coherence time

TL;DR

FADE is a new instrument that measures atmospheric coherence time by analyzing focus variations using a modified telescope and CCD imaging, providing a practical tool for atmospheric characterization.

Contribution

This paper introduces FADE, a novel instrument that derives atmospheric time constants from focus variation data, with detailed analysis of biases and validation through field tests.

Findings

FADE's measurements agree with standard site monitors.

Instrumental biases are quantified and manageable.

700 Hz acquisition frequency is effective.

Abstract

After proposing a new method of deriving the atmospheric time constant from the speed of focus variations (Kellerer & Tokovinin 2007), we now implement it with the new instrument, FADE. FADE uses a 36-cm Celestron telescope that is modified to transform stellar point images into a ring by increasing the central obstruction and combining defocus with spherical aberration. Sequences of images recorded with a fast CCD detector are processed to determine the defocus and its variations in time from the ring radii. The temporal structure function of the defocus is fitted with a model to derive the atmospheric seeing and time constant. We investigated by numerical simulation the data reduction algorithm and instrumental biases. Bias caused by instrumental effects, such as optical aberrations, detector noise, acquisition frequency, etc., is quantified. The ring image must be well-focused, i.e. must have a sufficiently sharp radial profile, otherwise, scintillation seriously affects the results. An acquisition frequency of 700 Hz appears adequate. FADE was operated for 5 nights at the Cerro Tololo observatory in parallel with the regular site monitor. Reasonable agreement between the results from the two instruments has been obtained.