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Adaptive Optics (AO) that compensates for atmospheric turbulence is a standard tool for high angular resolution observations of the Sun at most ground-based observatories today. AO systems as deployed at major solar telescopes allow for diffraction limited resolution in the visible light regime. Anisoplanatism of the turbulent air volume limits the effectivity of classical AO to a small region, typically of order 10 seconds of arc. Scientifically interesting features on the solar surface are often larger thus multi-conjugate adaptive optics (MCAO) is being developed to enlarge the corrected field of view. Dedicated wavefront sensors for observations of solar prominences off the solar limb with AO have been deployed. This paper summarizes wavefront sensing concepts specific to solar adaptive optics applications, like the correlating Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor (SH-WFS), multi-directional sensing with wide-field SH-WFSs, and gives a brief overview of recent developments.

High-resolution studies of the Sun’s magnetic fields are needed for a better understanding of the fundamental processes responsible for solar variability. The generation of magnetic fields through dynamo processes, the amplification of fields through the interaction with plasma flows, and the destruction of fields are poorly understood. There is incomplete insight into physical mechanisms responsible for chromospheric and coronal structure and heating, causes of variations in the radiative output of the Sun, and mechanisms that trigger flares and coronal mass ejections. Progress in answering these critical questions requires study of the interaction of the magnetic field and convection with a resolution sufficient to observe scale fundamental to these processes. The planned 4 m aperture ATST will be a unique scientific tool, with excellent angular resolution, a large wavelength range, and low scattered light. With its integrated adaptive optics, the ATST will achieve a spatial resolution nearly 10 times better than any existing solar telescope. The ATST design and development phase began in 2001 and it is now ready to begin construction in 2009.

Long-exposure spectro-polarimetry in the near-infrared is a preferred method to measure the magnetic field and other physical properties of solar prominences. In the past, it has been very difficult to observe prominences in this way with sufficient spatial resolution to fully understand their dynamical properties. Solar prominences contain highly transient structures, visible only at small spatial scales; hence they must be observed at sub-arcsecond resolution, with a high temporal cadence. An adaptive optics (AO) system capable of directly locking-on to prominence structure away from the solar limb has the potential to allow for diffraction-limited spectro-polarimetry of solar prominences. In this paper, the performance of the off-limb AO system and its expected performance, at the desired science wavelength {\CaII} 8542A, are shown.

We present high-resolution observations of horizontal flow fields measured by local correlation tracking from intensity images in three wavelengths, i.e., G band (GB), white light (WL), and near-infrared (NIR). The observations were obtained on 2003 October 29 within the flaring super active region NOAA 10486, which was the source of several X-class flares, including an X10 flare that occurred near the end of the observing run. The data were obtained at National Solar Observatory/Sacramento Peak (NSO/SP) using the newly developed high-order adaptive optics (AO) system. We also use Dopplergrams and magnetograms from MDI on board SOHO to study the line-of-sight flow and magnetic field. We observe persistent and long-lived (at least 5 hr) strong horizontal and vertical shear flows (both in the order of 1 km s-1) along the magnetic neutral line (NL) until the X10 flare occurred. From lower photospheric level (NIR), the direction of the flows does not change up to the upper photosphere (GB), while the flow speeds in the shear motion regions decrease and, on the contrary, those in regions without shear motions increase with increasing altitude. Right after the X10 flare, the magnetic gradient decreased, while both horizontal and vertical shear flows dramatically enhanced near the flaring NL. Our results suggest that photospheric shear flows and local magnetic shear near the NL can increase after the flare, which may be the result of shear release in the overlying large-scale magnetic system or the reflection of a twisted or sheared flux emergence carrying enough energy from the subphotosphere.

We present, for the first time, high-spatial-resolution observations combining high-order adaptive optics (AO), frame selection, and post-facto image correction via speckle masking. The data analysis is based on observations of solar active region NOAA 10486 taken with the Dunn Solar Telescope (DST) at the Sacramento Peak Observatory (SPO) of the National Solar Observatory (NSO) on 29 October 2003. The high Strehl ratio encountered in AO corrected short-exposure images provides highly improved signal-to-noise ratios leading to a superior recovery of the object’s Fourier phases. This allows reliable detection of small-scale solar features near the diffraction limit of the telescope. Speckle masking imaging provides access to high-order wavefront aberrations, which predominantly originate at high atmospheric layers and are only partially corrected by the AO system. In addition, the observations provided qualitative measures of the image correction away from the lock point of the AO system. We further present a brief inspection of the underlying imaging theory discussing the limitations and prospects of this multi-faceted image reconstruction approach in terms of the recovery of spatial information, photometric accuracy, and spectroscopic applications.

We present high spatial resolution observations of proper motions in the solar NOAA Active Region 10486 using a high-order adaptive optics system, frame selection, and speckle-masking image reconstruction. The data were obtained with the Dunn Solar Telescope of the National Solar Observatory/Sacramento Peak on 2003 October 29. The resolution of the images approaches the diffraction-limited resolution of the Dunn Solar Telescope of about 014 at 527 nm. We analyzed a 2 hr time series with a 1 minute cadence prior to an X10 white-light flare. Local correlation tracking was used to measure the photospheric proper motions. We find specific evidence of strong shear flows along the magnetic neutral line; these shear flows are well defined and correlated with white-light flare kernels in the visible and infrared. The speed along the flow channels can reach up to 1.6 km s-1, and the separation of channels with head-on flows can be less than 1''. Counterstreaming and complex flow patterns have been distinguishing characteristics of this extraordinarily flare-productive active region.

The Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST) will perform high-resolution studies of the Sun's magnetic fields needed to understand their role in the fundamental processes responsible for solar variability. The generation of magnetic fields through dynamo processes, the amplification of fields through the interaction with plasma flows, and the destruction of fields remain poorly understood. There is incomplete insight as to what physical mechanisms are responsible for heating the corona, what causes variations in the radiative output of the Sun, and what mechanisms trigger flares and coronal mass ejections. Progress in answering these critical questions requires study of the interaction of the magnetic field and convection with a resolution sufficient to observe scales fundamental to these processes. The 4-m aperture ATST is designed as a unique scientific tool, with excellent angular resolution, a large wavelength range, and low scattered light. With its integrated adaptive optics, the ATST will achieve a spatial resolution nearly 10 times better than any existing solar telescope. To search for other articles by the author(s) go to: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html

A multi-conjugate adaptive optics (MCAO) system is being built for the world's largest aperture 1.6m solar telescope, New Solar Telescope, at the Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO). The BBSO MCAO system employs three deformable mirrors to enlarge the corrected field of view. In order to characterize the MCAO performance with different optical configurations and DM conjugated altitudes, the BBSO MCAO setup also needs to be flexible. In this paper, we present the optical design of the BBSO MCAO system.

The 4m Advance Technology Solar Telescope (ATST) will be the world's leading ground-based resource for studying solar magnetism that controls the solar wind, flares, coronal mass ejections and variability in the Sun's output. The project has entered its construction phase. Major subsystems have been contracted, designs are complete, and fabrication has started. As its highest priority science driver ATST shall provide high resolution and high sensitivity observations of the dynamic solar magnetic fields throughout the solar atmosphere, including the corona at infrared wavelengths. A high order adaptive optics system delivers a corrected beam to the initial set of state-of-the-art, facility class instrumentation located in the Coude laboratory facility. The initial set of five first generation instruments consists of imagers and spectro-polarimeters. Development and construction of a four-meter solar telescope presents many technical challenges, including thermal control of the enclosure, telescope structure and optics and wavefront control. A brief overview of the science goals and observational requirements of the ATST will be given, followed by a summary of the status of the telescope, its instrumentation, and the construction of the facility.

Long-exposure spectroscopy and spectro-polarimetry at near-infrared wavelengths is one of the preferred tools deployed to measure the physical properties of Solar Prominences, including the Prominence magnetic field. However, until now, it was not possible to observe Prominences in sufficient detail to allow us to understand their dynamical properties. In order to understand Solar prominences, we need to observe them at sub-arcsecond spatial resolution, with a temporal cadence sufficient to make highly transient structures visible. Adaptive Optics capable of locking-on to off-limb prominence structure has the potential of providing diffraction limited spectroscopy and polarimetry of prominence structure. Such an adaptive optics system will allow scientists to come one step closer to understanding the true nature of solar prominences. In this presentation, we will detail the design and construction of such a system.

This paper summarizes recent solar AO developments and new challenges, including conventional AO for large aperture telescopes, MCAO and adaptive optics for faint structure near the limb of the sun.

The RISE/PSPT (‘Radiative Inputs from the Sun to the Earth/Precision Solar Photometric Telescopes’) experiment will attain high differential photometric precision in full-disk solar images with 1 arc sec pixels. To achieve this spatial resolution it will be necessary to use frame selection techniques to minimize the effects of atmospheric ‘seeing’. We report here on experiments to use a simple scintillation monitor as a trigger or ‘veto’ for imaging observations.

Adaptive optics (AO) has become an indispensable tool at ground-based solar telescopes. AO enables the ground-based observer to overcome the adverse effects of atmospheric seeing and obtain diffraction limited observations. Over the last decade adaptive optics systems have been deployed at major ground-based solar telescopes and revitalized ground-based solar astronomy. The relatively small aperture of solar telescopes and the bright source make solar AO possible for visible wavelengths where the majority of solar observations are still performed. Solar AO systems enable diffraction limited observations of the Sun for a significant fraction of the available observing time at ground-based solar telescopes, which often have a larger aperture than equivalent space based observatories, such as HINODE. New ground breaking scientific results have been achieved with solar adaptive optics and this trend continues. New large aperture telescopes are currently being deployed or are under construction. With the aid of solar AO these telescopes will obtain observations of the highly structured and dynamic solar atmosphere with unprecedented resolution. This paper reviews solar adaptive optics techniques and summarizes the recent progress in the field of solar adaptive optics. An outlook to future solar AO developments, including a discussion of Multi-Conjugate AO (MCAO) and Ground-Layer AO (GLAO) will be given. Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material is available for this article at 10.12942/lrsp-2011-2.

Solar observations are performed over an extended field of view and the isoplanatic patch over which conventional adaptive optics (AO) provides diffraction limited resolution is a severe limitation. The development of multi-conjugate adaptive optics (MCAO) for the next generation large aperture solar telescopes is thus a top priority. The Sun is an ideal object for the development of MCAO since solar structure provides multiple "guide stars" in any desired configuration. At the Dunn Solar Telescope (DST) we implemented a dedicated MCAO bench with the goal of developing wellcharacterized, operational MCAO. The MCAO system uses two deformable mirrors conjugated to the telescope entrance pupil and a layer in the upper atmosphere, respectively. The high altitude deformable mirror can be placed at conjugates ranging from 2km to 10km altitude. We have successfully and stably locked the MCAO system on solar granulation and demonstrated the MCAO system's ability to significantly extend the corrected field of view. We present results derived from analysis of imagery taken simultaneously with conventional AO and MCAO. We also present first results from solar Ground Layer AO (GLAO) experiments.

The Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST) has recently received National Science Foundation (NSF) approval to begin the construction process. ATST will be the most powerful solar telescope and the world's leading resource for studying solar magnetism that controls the solar wind, flares, coronal mass ejections and variability in the Sun's output. This paper gives an overview of the project, and describes the project management principles and practices that have been developed to optimize both the project's success as well as meeting requirements of the project's funding agency.

The 4m Advance Technology Solar Telescope (ATST) will be the most powerful solar telescope and the world's leading ground-based resource for studying solar magnetism that controls the solar wind, flares, coronal mass ejections and variability in the Sun's output. The project has successfully passed its final design review and the Environmental Impact Study for construction of ATST on Haleakala, Maui, HI has been concluded in December of 2009. The project is now entering its construction phase. As its highest priority science driver ATST shall provide high resolution and high sensitivity observations of the dynamic solar magnetic fields throughout the solar atmosphere, including the corona at infrared wavelengths. With its 4 m aperture, ATST will resolve features at 0."03 at visible wavelengths and obtain 0."1 resolution at the magnetically highly sensitive near infrared wavelengths. A high order adaptive optics system delivers a corrected beam to the initial set of state-of-the-art, facility class instrumentation located in the coude laboratory facility. The initial set of first generation instruments consists of five facility class instruments, including imagers and spectropolarimeters. The high polarimetric sensitivity and accuracy required for measurements of the illusive solar magnetic fields place strong constraints on the polarization analysis and calibration. Development and construction of a fourmeter solar telescope presents many technical challenges, including thermal control of the enclosure, telescope structure and optics and wavefront control. A brief overview of the science goals and observational requirements of the ATST will be given, followed by a summary of the design status of the telescope and its instrumentation, including design status of major subsystems, such as the telescope mount assembly, enclosure, mirror assemblies, and wavefront correction

Solar observations are performed over an extended field of view and the isoplanatic patch over which conventional adaptive optics (AO) provides diffraction limited resolution is a severe limitation. The development of multi-conjugate adaptive optics (MCAO) for the next generation large aperture solar telescopes is thus a top priority. The Sun is an ideal object for the development of MCAO since solar structure provides ,,multiple guide stars” in any desired configuration. At the Dunn Solar Telescope (DST) we implemented a dedicated MCAO bench with the goal of developing well-characterized, operational MCAO. The MCAO system uses 2 deformable mirrors conjugated to the telescope entrance pupil and a layer in the upper atmosphere, respectively. DM2 can be placed at conjugates ranging from 2km to 10km altitude. We have successfully and stably locked the MCAO system on artificial objects (slides), for which turbulence screens are generated directly in front of the DMs, as well as solar structure. We present preliminary results and discuss future plans.

The Interferometric Bidimensional Spectrometer (IBIS) installed at the Dunn Solar Telescope of the NSO/SP is used to investigate the morphology and dynamics of the lower chromosphere and the virtually non-magnetic fluctosphere below. The study addresses in particular the structure of magnetic elements that extend into these layers. We choose different quiet Sun regions in and outside coronal holes. In inter-network regions with no significant magnetic flux contributions above the detection limit of IBIS, we find intensity structures with the characteristics of a shock wave pattern. The magnetic flux elements in the network are long lived and seem to resemble the spatially extended counterparts to the underlying photospheric magnetic elements. We suggest a modification to common methods to derive the line-of-sight magnetic field strength and explain some of the difficulties in deriving the magnetic field vector from observations of the fluctosphere., accepted by ApJ, 16 pages, 8 figures

(Abridged) Aims: In this paper, we seek to establish the suitability of imaging spectroscopy performed in the Ca II 854.2 nm line as a means to investigate the solar chromosphere at high resolution. Methods: We utilize monochromatic images obtained with the Interferometric BIdimensional Spectrometer (IBIS) at multiple wavelengths within the Ca II 854.2 nm line and over several quiet areas. We analyze both the morphological properties derived from narrow-band monochromatic images and the average spectral properties of distinct solar features such as network points, internetwork areas and fibrils. Results: The spectral properties derived over quiet-Sun targets are in full agreement with earlier results obtained with fixed-slit spectrographic observations, highlighting the reliability of the spectral information obtained with IBIS. Furthermore, the very narrowband IBIS imaging reveals with much clarity the dual nature of the Ca II 854.2 nm line: its outer wings gradually sample the solar photosphere, while the core is a purely chromospheric indicator. The latter displays a wealth of fine structures including bright points, akin to the Ca II H2V and K2V grains, as well as fibrils originating from even the smallest magnetic elements. The fibrils occupy a large fraction of the observed field of view even in the quiet regions, and clearly outline atmospheric volumes with different dynamical properties, strongly dependent on the local magnetic topology. This highlights the fact that 1-D models stratified along the vertical direction can provide only a very limited representation of the actual chromospheric physics., 13 pages, 8 figures. Accepted in A&A. Revised version after referee's comments. New Fig. 1 and 7. Higher quality figures in http://www.arcetri.astro.it/~gcauzzi/papers/ibis.caii.pdf

We compare the rms contrast in observed speckle reconstructed G-band images with synthetic filtergrams computed from two magneto-hydrodynamic simulation snapshots. The observations consist of 103 bursts of 80 frames each taken at the Dunn Solar Telescope (DST), sampled at twice the diffraction limit of the telescope. The speckle reconstructions account for the performance of the Adaptive Optics (AO) system at the DST to supply reliable photometry. We find a considerable discrepancy in the observed rms contrast of 14.1% for the best reconstructed images, and the synthetic rms contrast of 21.5% in a simulation snapshot thought to be representative of the quiet Sun. The areas of features in the synthetic filtergrams that have positive or negative contrast beyond the minimum and maximum values in the reconstructed images have spatial scales that should be resolved. This leads us to conclude that there are fundamental differences in the rms G-band contrast between observed and computed filtergrams. On the basis of the substantially reduced granular contrast of 16.3% in the synthetic plage filtergram we speculate that the quiet-Sun may contain more weak magnetic field than previously thought., Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures

An important part of a large solar telescope is the ability to correct, in real time, optical alignment errors caused by gravitational bending of the telescope structure and wavefront errors caused by atmospheric seeing. The National Solar Observatory is currently designing the 4 meter Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST). The ATST wavefront correction system, described in this paper, will incorporate a number of interacting wavefront control systems to provide diffraction limited imaging performance. We will describe these systems and summarize the interaction between the various sub-systems and present results of performance modeling.

Adaptive Optics systems have revolutionized ground based astronomy by providing real time correction for atmospheric aberrations. However, due to limited temporal and spatial bandwidth the correction provided is not perfect. With knowledge of the Point Spread Function correction can be further improved. The lack of point sources in Solar observations makes a direct measurement of the PSF impossible. We present a method to obtain a PSF estimate from the Adaptive Optics system loop telemetry. Using this method we can obtain a PSF for each captured AO corrected image and correct each image individually. We applied this method to a long time series of Solar data obtaining satisfactory results. Also in an attempt to validate this method we successfully observed the star Sirius with the Dunn Solar Telescope. The AO corrected star images provide a direct measurement of the PSF that can be compared to our estimates obtained from the AO telemetry data.

We investigate the oscillatory properties of the quiet solar chromosphere in relation to the underlying photosphere, with particular regard to the effects of the magnetic topology. We perform a Fourier analysis on a sequence of line-of-sight velocities measured simultaneously in a photospheric (Fe I 709.0 nm) and a chromospheric line (Ca II 854.2 nm). The velocities were obtained from full spectroscopic data acquired at high spatial resolution with the Interferometric BIdimensional Spectrometer (IBIS). The field of view encompasses a full supergranular cell, allowing us to discriminate between areas with different magnetic characteristics. We show that waves with frequencies above the acoustic cut-off propagate from the photosphere to upper layers only in restricted areas of the quiet Sun. A large fraction of the quiet chromosphere is in fact occupied by ``magnetic shadows'', surrounding network regions, that we identify as originating from fibril-like structures observed in the core intensity of the Ca II line. We show that a large fraction of the chromospheric acoustic power at frequencies below the acoustic cut-off, residing in the proximity of the magnetic network elements, directly propagates from the underlying photosphere. This supports recent results arguing that network magnetic elements can channel low-frequency photospheric oscillations into the chromosphere, thus providing a way to input mechanical energy in the upper layers., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure, A&A Letters in press

Solar adaptive optics has become an indispensable tool at ground based solar telescopes. Over the last few years several solar adaptive optics systems have been deployed at major ground based solar telescopes. These systems enable diffraction limited observations of the sun for a significant fraction of the available observing time at these telescopes. New ground breaking scientific results have been achieved with solar adaptive optics. This paper summarizes the recent progress in the field of solar adaptive optics.

The Sun is an ideal target for the development and application of Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics (MCAO). A solar MCAO system is being developed by the National Solar Observatory, Adaptive Optics Project, with the purpose of extending the corrected science field of view to 1.25Arcmin. A detailed optical set-up, design and optical performance for such a system is presented and discussed here. The preliminary results for this first MCAO/DST run, are presented in more details by Langlois et al [1] at this conference.

The Sun is an ideal object for the development and application of Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics (MCAO). An effort to develop solar MCAO is pursued by the NSO’s Adaptive Optics Project. In developing solar MCAO we bear in mind its possible implementation into the proposed 4-M Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST). Two possible relay optical designs feeding a MCAO section and the Coude section of a 4-M off-axis solar telescope, such as the proposed ATST, are presented and discussed here.

Multiconjugate adaptive optics has been proposed in order to extend the size of the corrected field of view with respect to the classical AO field of view. In order to achieve this, a three dimensional measurement of the turbulent volume is needed to collect the information to command the several deformable mirrors. This can be done by using tomography, in which several WFS are used, each of them coupled to a sky region. Here we report the experimental demonstration of such evaluation for solar observations. In addition, we confront these results on turbulence distribution with a study of AO corrected images by using multi point large field of view wavefront sensing with the new Dunn Solar Telescope adaptive optics system. This yields to information on the AO system performances and provide useful estimate of the PSF variation across the field. The results from this article provides an important step forward for building a full solar multi-conjugate adaptive optics system for the Dunn Solar Telescope and in a longer term for the future 4 meter ATST telescope.

A diffraction limited spectro-polarimeter is under construction at the National Solar Observatory in collaboration with the High Altitude Observatory. The scientific objective of the project is to measure the magnetic fields on the Sun up to the diffraction limit of the Dunn Solar Telescope. The same instrument would also measure the magnetic field of large sunspots or sunspot groups with reasonable spatial resolution. This requires a flexible image scale which cannot be obtained with the current Advanced Stokes Polarimeter (ASP) without loosing 50% of the light. The new spectro-polarimeter is designed in such a way that the image scale can be changed without loosing much light. It can work either in high-spatial resolution mode (0.09 arcsec per pixel) with a small field of view (FOV: 65 arcsec) or in large FOV mode (163 arcsec) with low-spatial resolution (0.25 arcsec per pixel). The phase-I of this project is to design and build the spectrograph with flexible image scale. Using the existing modulation, calibration optics of the ASP and the ASP control and data acquisition system with ASP-CHILL camera, the spectrograph was tested for its performance. This paper will concentrate on the performance of the spectrograph and will discuss some preliminary results obtained with the test runs.

We present a progress report of the solar adaptive optics (AO) development program at the National Solar Observatory (NSO) and the Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO). Examples of diffraction-limited observations obtained with the NSO low-order solar adaptive optics system at the Dunn Solar Telescope (DST) are presented. The design of the high order adaptive optics systems that will be deployed at the DST and the BBSO is discussed. The high order systems will provide diffraction-limited observations of the Sun in median seeing conditions at both sites.

The 4m Advance Technology Solar Telescope (ATST) will be the most powerful solar telescope in the world, providing a unique scientific tool to study the Sun and possibly other astronomical objects, such as solar system planets. We briefly summarize the science drivers and observational requirements of ATST. The main focus of this paper is on the many technical challenges involved in designing a large aperture solar telescope. The ATST project has entered the design and development phase. Development of a 4-m solar telescope presents many technical challenges. Most existing high-resolution solar telescopes are designed as vacuum telescopes to avoid internal seeing caused by the solar heat load. The large aperture drives the ATST to an open-air design, similar to night-time telescope designs, and makes thermal control of optics and telescope structure a paramount consideration. A heat stop must reject most of the energy (13 kW) at prime focus without introducing internal seeing. To achieve diffraction-limited observations at visible and infrared wavelengths, ATST will have a high order (order 1000 DoF) adaptive optics system using solar granulation as the wavefront sensing target. Coronal observations require occulting in prime focus, a Lyot stop and contamination control of the primary. An initial set of instruments will be designed as integral part of the telescope. First telescope design and instrument concepts will be presented.

The National Solar Observatory (NSO) and the New Jersey Institute of Technology are jointly developing high order solar Adaptive Optics (AO) to be deployed at both the Dunn Solar Telescope (DST) and the Big Bear Solar Telescope (BBST). These AO systems are expected to deliver first light at the end of 2003. We discuss the AO optical designs for both the DST and the BBST. The requirements for the optical design of the AO system are as follows: the optics must deliver diffraction-limited imaging at visible and near infrared over a 190"×190" field of view. The focal plane image must be flat over the entire field of view to accommodate a long slit and fast spectrograph. The wave-front sensor must be able to lock on solar structure such as granulation. Finally, the cost for the optical system must fit the limited budget. Additional design considerations are the desired high bandwidth for tip/tilt correction, which leads to a small, fast and off-the-shelf tilt-tip mirror system and high throughput, i.e., a minimal number of optical surfaces. In order to eliminate pupil image wander on the wave-front sensor, both the deformable mirror and tip-tilt mirror are located on the conjugation images of the telescope pupil. We discuss the details of the optical design for the high order AO system, which will deliver high resolution image at the 0.39 - 1.6 μm wavelength range.

We present a high-order adaptive optical system for the 26-inch vacuum solar telescope of Big Bear Solar Observatory. A small elliptical tip/tilt mirror is installed at the end of the existing coude optical path on the fast two-axis tip/tilt platform with its resonant frequency around 3.3 kHz. A 77 mm diameter deformable mirror with 76 subapertures as well as wave-front sensors (correlation tracker and Shack-Hartman) and scientific channels for visible and IR polarimetry are installed on an optical table. The correlation tracker sensor can detect differences at 2 kHz between a 32×32 reference frame and real time frames. The WFS channel detects 2.5 kHz (in binned mode) high-order wave-front atmosphere aberrations to improve solar images for two imaging magnetographs based on Fabry-Perot etalons in telecentric configurations. The imaging magnetograph channels may work simultaneously in a visible and IR spectral windows with FOVs of about 180×180 arc sec, spatial resolution of about 0.2 arc sec/pixel and SNR of about 400 and 600 accordingly for 0.25 sec integration time.

High resolution observations of the Sun are of key importance in understanding fundamental astrophysical processes. Adaptive optics (AO) is an important tool that allows solar astronomers to achieve diffraction limited observations from existing ground based telescopes. AO is also a key technology required for a future 4m-class Advanced Solar Telescope (AST) that the international community of solar astronomers is planning to build. The history of the development of solar AO is reviewed and results from recent successful demonstrations of solar AO systems are presented. The main difference between solar AO and night time AO is the different, and more elaborate wavefront sensing technique that has to be applied in order to measure wavefront aberrations using solar granulation as a target. Different approaches to this problem are discussed. Multi-conjugate AO has been proposed as a technique to achieve diffraction limited resolution over a field-of-view (FOV) significantly larger than the isoplanatic patch. The Sun is an ideal object for the development and application of MCAO.

Over the past several years, a number of steps have been taken to improve the optical performance of the Vacuum Tower Solar Telescope at Sacramento Peak. We believe that the optical system of the telescope is now corrected to better than 1/10 wave rms after these improvements.

The National Solar Observatory at Sacramento Peak is developing adaptive optics (AO) for solar astronomy. We are currently implementing a low order adaptive optics system that will correct approximately 20 Zernike modes. The system design permits future expansion future expansion to about 80 Zernike modes. We are using a correlating Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor. Since a point source is generally not available on the sun, wavefront tilts have to be derived by applying correlation techniques to images of extended objects, such as granulation, probes and sunspots.

We have made high resolution observations of the Sun in which we identify individual sunquakes and see power from these seismic events being pumped into the resonant modes of vibration of the Sun. A typical event lasts about five minutes. We report the physical properties of the events and relate them to theories of the excitation of solar oscillations. We also discuss the local seismic potential of these events., Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, typo in title fixed

We present a tracking system that stabilizes atmospheric and instrumental image motion in vacuum tower telescopes. The system is designed to lock on low contrast features, such as solar granulation or other small scale structure. A matrix diode array rapidly scans the scene of interest, usually with a field of 5 arcsec. Images are cross-correlated in real time with a previously recorded reference image of the same area. The drive signal for the image motion corrector, a small, articulated mirror, is generated by measuring the position of the cross correlation maximum. Reference pictures are updated every 30 s in order to adapt to the changing small scale solar features. Performance tests show that the residual image motion in the tracked image is 0.05 arcsec rms compared to a typical 0.5 arcsec rms for the untracked image. The system locks on any small scale structure anywhere on the sun. The bandwidth of the servo system is 40 Hz, or sufficient to stabilize image motion on a meter-class solar telescope.© (1991) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.