Aperture synthesis in the infrared
Abstract
Difficulties encountered in resolving high frequency imagery in the IR range that has been distorted by the atmosphere are reviewed, with attention given to the potential benefits of aperture synthesis. The Fried parameter defines the point spread function of ground-based observations, and varies with the diameter of the instrument. An instantaneous image is extracted with second order statistics of a random function, a practice used in speckle interferometry. IR astronomy is dependent on retrieval of the image phase, and almost coherent images in the IR are available with telescopes of 1-10 m diameter. The atmospheric distortion is wavelength dependent, indicating that interferometry is best suited for the ground-based surveys. It is suggested that current capabilities with single array detectors are as efficient and accurate as those available from beam-combining for aperture synthesis.
- Publication:
-
ESO Infrared Workshop
- Pub Date:
- 1982
- Bibcode:
- 1982esoi.work..259L
- Keywords:
-
- Atmospheric Effects;
- Image Resolution;
- Infrared Astronomy;
- Infrared Imagery;
- Infrared Telescopes;
- Synthetic Apertures;
- Angular Resolution;
- Image Motion Compensation;
- Image Reconstruction;
- Infrared Interferometers;
- Speckle Patterns;
- Astronomy