The isoplanatic patch is defined as an arbitrary area of the sky over which the path length of incoming electromagnetic waves (such as light or radio waves) only varies by a relatively small amount relative to their wavelength.[1] Typically this area is measured by angular size. Poor seeing or a larger telescope aperture will decrease the size of a patch. Thus, the patch size decreases with increased atmospheric turbulent activity. In addition, the isoplanatic patch size is proportional to the Fried parameter and the telescope's angular resolution.[2][3][4][5][6] In order to correct for atmospheric distortion, telescopes fitted with adaptive optics use a bright light source such as a laser to identify the properties of a patch in the area of interest.
See also
editReferences
edit- ↑ Thompson, A. Richard; Moran, James M.; Swenson, Jr., George W. (November 20, 2008), Interferometry and Synthesis in Radio Astronomy, Wiley, p. 640, ISBN 9783527617852.
- ↑ Tatarskiĭ, V. I.; Silverman, Richard A. (2016). Wave propagation in a turbulent medium. Dover books on physics. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, Inc. ISBN 978-0-486-81029-4.
- ↑ Fried, D. L. (1965-11-01). "Statistics of a Geometric Representation of Wavefront Distortion". JOSA. 55 (11): 1427–1435. doi:10.1364/JOSA.55.001427.
- ↑ Noll, Robert J. (1976-03-01). "Zernike polynomials and atmospheric turbulence*". JOSA. 66 (3): 207–211. doi:10.1364/JOSA.66.000207.
- ↑ Hardy, John W. (1998). Adaptive optics for astronomical telescopes. Oxford series in optical and imaging sciences. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-509019-2.
- ↑ Roddier, F. (1981), "V The Effects of Atmospheric Turbulence in Optical Astronomy", Progress in Optics, vol. 19, Elsevier, pp. 281–376, doi:10.1016/s0079-6638(08)70204-x, ISBN 978-0-444-85444-5, retrieved 2026-04-01
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
Further reading
edit- Birney S, Gonzalez G, Oesper D "observational astronomy" second edition, Cambridge university press, 2006
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