Atmospheric optical-turbulence at Roque de los Muchachos Observatory: database and recalibration of the generalized-SCIDAR data

TL;DR

This paper presents the largest atmospheric optical-turbulence profile database for the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, including recalibration of data to correct for processing errors, and analyzes its impact on adaptive optics parameters.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive, recalibrated database of turbulence profiles and assesses the effects of recalibration on adaptive optics parameter calculations.

Findings

Recalibration significantly reduces turbulence overestimation.

Database includes 197,035 profiles from 211 nights.

Recalibration impacts the accuracy of adaptive optics parameters.

Abstract

We present the largest database so far of atmospheric optical-turbulence profiles (197035 individual CN2(h)) for an astronomical site, the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (La Palma, Spain). This C2 (h) database was obtained through generalized-SCIDAR observations at the 1 meter Jacobus Kapteyn telescope from Febrary 2004 to August 2009, obtaining useful data for 211 nights. The overestimation of the turbulence strength induced during the generalized SCIDAR data processing has been analyzed for the different observational configurations. All the individual C2 (h) have been recalibrated to compensate the introduced errors during data treatment following (Avila & Cuevas 2009). Comparing results from profiles before and after the recalibration, we analyze its impact on the calculation of relevant parameters for adaptive optics.