Exploiting new technology to enhance ground-based astronomy

The aim of this studentship is to develop concepts and technologies to advance the capabilities of modern astronomical observatories by actively correcting for the detrimental effects of the Earth's atmosphere in real-time.

The student will engage with the development, deployment and exploitation of site-testing instrumentation at observatory sites around the world, to improve our understanding of the effects of the Earth's atmosphere on astronomical observations. They will look to apply these results to improve the performance of adaptive optical or scintillation (the twinkling of the stars) correction systems, or to the forecasting of optical turbulence conditions at observatory sites.

This work will be directly applicable to the next generation of giant telescopes, such as the 40 metre European Extremely Large Telescope in Chile. Enabling them to reach their science goals including discovering extra-solar planets, reconstructing the formation of galaxies, and even elucidate the nature of dark matter and dark energy.

The student will join the dynamic environment of the Centre for Advanced Instrumentation (CfAI), within the Physics Department at Durham University. The CfAI is a world leading research centre with a large and successful Astronomical Instrumentation group, including Adaptive Optics and Space Science technologies. The Adaptive Optics group has significant experience in analysing atmospheric turbulence and the use of computer modelling of complex optical systems to design optical instrumentation to some of the world's premier astronomical observatories.

The CfAI has also been at the cutting edge of space research for many years producing key optical components for instruments on the James Webb Space Telescope and Earth observation satellites SENTINEL 4 and METimage."