Atmospheric time constant with MASS and FADE

Abstract

The approximate nature of the adaptive-optics time constant measurements with MASS is examined. The calibration coefficient C derived from numerical simulations of polychromatic scintillation shows dependence on the height of the turbulence layer, wind speed, and seeing. The previously recommended value of C=1.27 is a good match to typical conditions, while C can vary from 0.6 to 1.6 in other circumstances. For two nights, MASS was compared with the time constant measured with adaptive optics, and the expected agreement was found. We show that the single-layer approximation used in some AO systems to derive the AO time constant can give wrong results. A better approach is to estimate it from the speed of focus variation (the FADE method). The analysis of the speed of scintillation developed recently by V.~Kornilov will lead to more accurate measurements of the AO time constant with MASS.