Department of Physics, Astronomy & Geosciences Fall ’24 Seminar Series
Event Information: Physics, Astronomy & Geosciences Fall ’24 Seminar Series: Exciton-activated phonon magnetic in monolayer MoS2 – Towson University
Fri., Oct. 18, 2024
11am – 11:50am
Science Complex, Room 1230
Speaker: Peter Almonte, MS Applied Physics, Towson University – NASA Optics Branch, Summer Internship 2024
Title: Characterizing Atmospheric Turbulence
Abstract: Optical communication is a critical technology for accelerating data transfer, providing significant benefits for space missions by increasing bandwidth 10 to 100 times more than radio frequency. NASA’s Low-Cost Optical Terminal (LCOT) is designed to support optical communication by providing a reconfigurable optical ground station telescope for a range of satellites. Optical communications are susceptible to distortions caused by atmospheric turbulence – variations in temperature, pressure, and wind – which aberrate wavefronts and prevent LCOT from operating at its diffraction limit. The LCOT design uses adaptive optics in its receive path to sense and correct for turbulence distortions. Here, I report on work recreating atmospheric turbulence conditions in a controlled lab environment at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and cross-referencing them to actual turbulence conditions seen at the LCOT facility. A lab testbed was created to mimic turbulence in the LCOT received optical path using a phase wheel to introduce wavefront distortions, and the tip-tilt Greenwood frequency was measured across a range of turbulence conditions to verify one of LCOT’s control loop requirements. Local seeing data was analyzed to assess real-time atmospheric conditions, and the Greenwood frequency was calculated to quantify the turbulence affecting LCOT. A Python simulation of the lab setup was built, and the lab output was verified again, enabling future simulation testing of LCOT’s adaptive optics system.
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This post was written by Charles, Amanda G.