Real-time measurement of atmospheric parameters for the 127-element adaptive optics system of 1.8-m telescope

A real-time method for measuring atmospheric parameters based on co-processor field-programmable gate array (FPGA) and main processor digital signal processing (DSP) is proposed for ground-based telescopes with adaptive optics (AO) systems. Coherence length, outer scale, average wind speed, and coherence time are estimated according to closed-loop data on the residual slopes and the corrected voltages of AO systems. This letter introduces the principle and architecture design of the proposed method, which is successfully applied in the 127-element AO system of the 1.8-m telescope of Yunnan Astronomical Observatory. The method enables real-time atmospheric observations with the same object and path of the AO system. This method is also applicable to extended objects.