Numerical Simulation of Anisoplanatic Imaging of Astronomical Telescope through Atmospheric Turbulence

Anisoplanatism refers to the fact that the turbulence-induced wavefront distortions for propagation paths from the observed object with even slightly different propagation directions can be considerably different. A numerical simulation method of anisoplanatic imaging through volume atmospheric turbulence has been developed in this paper. The propagation of optical rays through volume turbulence is considered as a process of successive scattering of the light wave by a set of phase screens. We give the calculation method of the optimal configuration for multiple phase screens, and t give the flow chart of the whole simulation process of anisoplantic imaging. Then, the anisoplanatic degradation as a function of the separated angle as seen from the receiving aperture of telescope for various numbers of phase screens and different aperture diameters is analyzed. The analyses of the simulation data show that three phase screens is adequate to the representation of the effect of volume turbulence. The simulation method presented here is applicable to a wide range of parameters of telescope imaging system and atmospheric turbulence.