Saavidra Perera

Post-Doctoral Researcher

P-REx: Piston-Reconstruction Experiment

Optical Turbulence Profiling -- Interferometry

Current Research Summary:

In interferometry the presence of the turbulent atmosphere induces fluctuations in the optical path difference between each telescope used (baseline). As a result, the observed fringes are unstable, randomly moving around the sidereal position. Therefore, control of the phase aberration caused by the atmosphere i.e. the piston stability, is necessary for interferometry.

Typically, this has been done by employing adaptive optics and fringe trackers to increase the sensitivity of interferometers. The Piston Reconstruction Experiment (P-REx), is a new method that requires only pseudo open loop AO data to reconstruct the temporal piston drift from the atmosphere. This has the advantage that the system can be easily implemented since all required hardware will already be available at the relevant interferometers. Currently, I am working with LBTI and VLTI Gravity data.

Prior Research:

Shot Term Post-Doc at Durham University (2018) installing the FASS at Paranal
PhD at Durham University (2013-2017) working in optical turbulence profiling