Efficient iterative tip/tilt reconstruction for atmospheric tomography

Abstract

The planned new generation of extremely large telescopes (ELT) requires highly efficient algorithms for its adaptive optics systems. Recently, a new iterative reconstruction approach for multi conjugate adaptive optics (MCAO) and multi object adaptive optics (MOAO) was introduced that computes the mirror corrections without the use of matrix-vector multiplications. The method splits the MCAO/MOAO problem into three subproblems – wavefront reconstruction, atmospheric tomography and mirror deformation – sequently. If an AO system uses laser guide stars, then the reconstruction methods have to be extended in order to consider the cone effect and the tip/tilt indetermination. For the reconstruction of an atmosphere with correct tip/tilt we assume that additional measurements from a tip/tilt sensor are available, and propose two iterative reconstruction methods for the atmosphere. In the first approach, the tip/tilt reconstruction is included into the atmospheric tomography, whereas in the second approach the tip/tilt is reconstructed separately and added to the atmosphere after the atmospheric tomography. Both algorithms are tested numerically. The reconstruction quality of our methods is evaluated for ELT.