Abstract The daytime atmospheric turbulence profile is crucial for the design of both optical systems and the control algorithm of a solar Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics (MCAO) system. The Multi-Aperture Seeing Profiler (MASP) is a portable instrument which can measure the daytime turbulence profile up to ∼ 30 km. It consists of two portable small telescopes that can deliver performance similar to a Solar-Differential Image Motion Monitor + (S-DIMM+) on a 1.0 m solar telescope. In the original design of MASP, only two guide stars are used to retrieve the turbulence profile. In this paper, we studied the usage of multiple guide stars in MASP using numerical simulation, and found that there are three main advantages. Firstly, the precision of the turbulence profile can be increased, especially at a height of about 15 km, which is important for characterizing turbulence at the tropopause. Secondly, the equivalent diameter of MASP can be increased up to 30%, which will reduce the cost and weight of the instruments. Thirdly, the vertical resolution of the turbulence profile near the ground increases with the help of multiple guide stars.
Keywords atmospheric effects — site testing — methods: numerical
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