ABSTRACT
Adaptive-optics system design must take into account many factors. The beacon that provides a measure of the atmospheric turbulence may be in a different direction from the one that needs the correction. In this case the performance depends on the isoplanatic patch size, which is the region over which the turbulence is fairly constant. This patch size can be different for different Zernike modes. The rate of change of turbulence with time affects the acceptable servo bandwidth. The target must be tracked through turbulence and the effect of tilt on system performance is very important. Apertures tend to smooth out some effects, and this affects system design. The system performance with artificial beacon is affected by the beacon height and the number of beacons. Formulas to determine all these effects to enable one to design a system are developed in this chapter.
