UTILIZATION OF THE WAVEFRONT SENSOR AND SHORT-EXPOSURE IMAGES FOR SIMULTANEOUS ESTIMATION OF QUASI-STATIC ABERRATION AND EXOPLANET INTENSITY

• Published in: The Astrophysical journal 2013-04, Vol.767 (1), p.1-11
• Main Author: Frazin, Richard A
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: ACCURACY; Adaptive optics; ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY; BRIGHTNESS; CAMERAS; DISTANCE; Estimates; Extrasolar planets; GAUSS FUNCTION; IMAGE PROCESSING; Mathematical models; OPTICAL SYSTEMS; OPTICS; PHOTONS; Planet detection; PLANETS; ROTATION; Sensors; SIMULATION; TELESCOPES; Wave fronts; WAVE PROPAGATION; WAVELENGTHS
• ISSN: 0004-637X; 1538-4357
• DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/767/1/21

Heretofore, the literature on exoplanet detection with coronagraphic telescope systems has paid little attention to the information content of short exposures and methods of utilizing the measurements of adaptive optics wavefront sensors. This paper provides a framework for the incorporation of the wavefront sensor measurements in the context of observing modes in which the science camera takes millisecond exposures. In this formulation, the wavefront sensor measurements provide a means to jointly estimate the static speckle and the planetary signal. The ability to estimate planetary intensities in as little as a few seconds has the potential to greatly improve the efficiency of exoplanet search surveys. For simplicity, the mathematical development assumes a simple optical system with an idealized Lyot coronagraph. Numerical experiments are performed with wavefront data from the AEOS Adaptive Optics System sensing at 850 nm. These experiments assume a science camera wavelength [lambda] of 1.1[mu], that the measured wave-fronts are exact, and a Gaussian approximation of shot-noise. The effects of detector read-out noise and other issues are left to future investigations.