The Atmospheric moNitoring to Assess the availability of Optical LInks through the Atmosphere (ANAtOLIA) is a station developed in the framework of a project funded by the European Space Agency which aims to ground-sites selection and assess their availabilities for optical links through the atmosphere. In addition to cloud cover, space-to-ground optical communications are limited by aerosols and atmospheric turbulence. Therefore, we are developing in the framework of the ANAtOLIA project, an innovative and efficiency instrumentation and studies to specify, accurately measure, analyze, characterize, and ultimately predict critical atmospheric parameters for the purposes of the selection of the Optical Ground Station (OGS) sites and the evaluation of their availability. The main objectives of ANAtOLIA project are to design, manufacture, procure and assembly a self-standing and autonomous ground support equipment, comprising cloud, aerosol and turbulence monitoring to deliver precise measurements of the atmosphere transmission. Then, to install and commission of these atmosphere monitors at selected ground locations in ESA member states or in their vicinity and to record continuously local cloud, aerosol information and atmospheric turbulence conditions for 24 months. The last objective is to correlate these local ground measurements with data available from other sources of atmospheric conditions. The main goal of these correlations is to improve knowledge of the optical link availability for selected OGS locations and to carry out a long-term validation of the optical link availability prediction methods. ANAtOLIA is a compact 24h mobile station consisting of the Generalized Monitor of Turbulence (GMT), the Reuniwatt Sky Insight camera and the Cimel photometer CE318-T.
ANAtOLIA (Atmospheric moNitoring to Assess the availability of Optical LInks through the Atmosphere) is a project funded by the European Space Agency and aims to ground-sites selection and assess their availabilities for optical links through the atmosphere. In addition to cloud cover, space-to-ground optical communications are limited by aerosols and atmospheric turbulence. Therefore, we are developing in the framework of the ANAtOLIA project, an innovative and efficiency instrumentation and studies to specify, accurately measure, analyze, characterize, and ultimately predict critical atmospheric parameters for the purposes of the selection of the OGS (Optical Ground Station) sites and the evaluation of their availability. The main mission objectives of ANAtOLIA are to design, manufacture, procure and assembly a self-standing and autonomous ground support equipment, comprising cloud, aerosol and turbulence monitoring to deliver precise measurements of the atmosphere transmission. Secondary study goals are to install and commission of these atmosphere monitors at selected ground locations in ESA member states or in their vicinity and to record continuously local cloud, aerosol information and atmospheric turbulence conditions for 24 months. The last objective is to correlate these local ground measurements with data available from other sources of atmospheric conditions. The main goal of these correlations is to improve knowledge of the optical link availability for selected OGS locations and to carry out a long-term validation of the optical link availability prediction methods. This compact 24h mobile station consists of the Generalized Monitor of Turbulence (GMT), Reuniwatt Sky Insight camera and Cimel CE318-T.
Since 2015, the Calern Atmospheric Turbulence Station (CATS) monitors optical turbulence conditions at the Calern observatory, from the ground to the top of the atmosphere during both daytime and nighttime. Its advantages are its autonomy to work continuously and its ability to measure all parameters characterizing the turbulence, including its vertical profile C2n with a high vertical resolution (~100m at ground level) from the ground to more than 20km height. All these parameters are important for the astronomical community for daily operations, for instrument dimensioning and for forecasting. Until now CATS was composed of two well-known instruments: the Generalized Differential Image Motion Monitor (GDIMM) working on bright stars, and the Profiler of Moon Limb (PML), working on Moon or Sun limbs. Having these two instruments brings a complementarity to CATS to monitor almost continuously the turbulence conditions. In this paper, we present the last upgrades of the CATS station and the new instrumentations and tools that have been added recently to the station.
With a possible angular resolution down to 0.1-0.2 millisecond of arc using the 330 m baselines and the access to the 600-900 nm spectral domain, the CHARA Array is ideally configured for focusing on precise and accurate fundamental parameters of stars. CHARA/SPICA (Stellar Parameters and Images with a Cophased Array) aims at performing a large survey of stars all over the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. This survey will also study the effects of the different kinds of variability and surface structure on the reliability of the extracted fundamental parameters. New surface-brightness-colour relations will be extracted from this survey, for general purposes on distance determination and the characterization of faint stars. SPICA is made of a visible 6T fibered instrument and of a near-infrared fringe sensor. In this paper, we detail the science program and the main characteristics of SPICA-VIS. We present finally the initial performance obtained during the commissioning.
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