Exoplanet atmospheres

Abstract:

When commissioned in November 2008 at the Palomar 200 inch Hale Telescope, the Oxford SWIFT I&z band integral field spectrograph, fed by the adaptive optics system PALAO, provided a wide (3x) range of spatial resolutions: three plate scales of 235 mas, 160 mas, and 80 mas per spaxel over a contiguous field-of-view of 89x44 pixels. Depending on observing conditions and guide star brightness we can choose a seeing limited scale of 235 mas per spaxel, or 160 mas and 80 mas per spaxel for very bright guide star AO with substantial increase of enclosed energy. Over the last two years PALAO was upgraded to PALM-3000: an extreme, high-order adaptive optics system with two deformable mirrors with more than 3000 actuators, promising diffraction limited performance in SWIFT's wavelength range. In order to take advantage of this increased spatial resolution we upgraded SWIFT with new pre-optics allowing us to spatially Nyquist sample the diffraction limited PALM-3000 point spread function with 16 mas resolution, reducing the spaxel scale by another factor of 5x. We designed, manufactured, integrated and tested the new pre-optics in the first half of 2011 and commissioned it in December 2011. Here we present the opto-mechanical design and assembly of the new scale changing optics, as well as laboratory and on-sky commissioning results. In optimal observing conditions we achieve substantial Strehl ratios, delivering the near diffraction limited spatial resolution in the I&z bands. © 2012 SPIE.

Abstract:

HARMONI is an integral field spectrograph working at visible and near-infrared wavelengths, over a range of spatial scales from ground layer corrected to fully diffraction-limited. The instrument has been chosen to be part of the first-light complement at the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT1). This paper describes the engineering technology development being undertaken at the UKATC and Oxford to support E-ELT HARMONI2 instrument in its pre-phase-B stage. This includes the description of technology demonstrators for a tracking optical de-rotator to be located within the instrument vacuum vessel, a cryogenic shutter and a compact thermally compensating lens mount system. In addition the material testing facilities available at the UKATC are described which will enable the measurement of material and bolted joint thermal conductivities to 4K and friction/wear properties of material combinations to 20K. This work is undertaken to improve the instrument performance and reduce technical, cost and schedule risk. © 2012 SPIE.

Abstract:

Ammonia (NH3) has been detected both on Saturn and Jupiter, and although its concentration and distribution has been well-studied on Jupiter, it has proven more difficult to do so on Saturn due to higher sensitivity requirements resulting from Saturn's lower atmospheric temperatures and the dominance of Saturn's phosphine which masks the ammonia signal. Using far-infrared measurements of Saturn taken by Cassini/CIRS between February 2005 and December 2010, the latitudinal variations of upper tropospheric ammonia on Saturn are studied. Sensitivity to NH3 in the far-infrared is explored to provide estimates of temperature, para-H2 and PH 3, from 2.5 cm-1 spectral resolution measurements alone, 0.5 cm-1 spectral-resolution measurements alone, and 0.5 cm -1 measurements degraded to 2.5 cm-1 spectral resolution. The estimates of NH3 from these three different datasets largely agree, although there are notable differences using the high emission angle 0.5 cm-1 data, which are asserted to result from a reduction in sensitivity at higher emission angles. For low emission angles, the 0.5 cm -1-retrieved values of NH3 can be used to reproduce the 2.5 cm-1 spectra with similar efficacy as those derived directly from the 2.5 cm-1 resolution data itself, and vice versa. Using low emission angle data, NH3 is observed to have broad peak abundances at ±25°latitude, attributed to result from condensation and/or photolytic processes. Lack of data coverage at equatorial latitudes precludes analysis of NH3 abundance at less than about 10°latitude. Noise levels are not sufficient to distinguish fine zonal features, although it seems that NH3 cannot trace the zonal belt/zone structure in the upper troposphere of Saturn. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Abstract:

HARMONI, the High Angular Resolution Monolithic Optical & Near-infrared Integral field spectrograph is one of two first-light instruments for the European Extremely Large Telescope. Over a 256x128 pixel field-of-view HARMONI will simultaneously measure approximately 32,000 spectra. Each spectrum is about 4000 spectral pixels long, and covers a selectable part of the 0.47-2.45 μm wavelength range at resolving powers of either R=4000, 10000, or 20000. All 32,000 spectra are imaged onto eight HAWAII4RG detectors using a multiplexing scheme that divides the input field into four sub-fields, each imaged onto one image slicer that in turn re-arranges a single sub-field into two long exit slits feeding one spectrograph each. In total we require eight spectrographs, each with one HAWAII4RG detector. A system of articulated and exchangeable fold-mirrors and VPH gratings allows one to select different spectral resolving powers and wavelength ranges of interest while keeping a fixed geometry between the spectrograph collimator and camera avoiding the need for an articulated grating and camera. In this paper we describe both the field splitting and image slicing optics as well as the optics that will be used to select both spectral resolving power and wavelength range. © 2012 SPIE.