Investigation of a CCD Camera for Measurements of Optical Atmospheric Turbulence

Atmospheric turbulence introduces random phase distortions in optical imaging systems. The development of new laser and imaging systems requires information on the spatial and temporal distribution of this atmospheric turbulence. Measurements of the image spread and the jitter induced by the atmosphere on an optical system provide two techniques to quantify these phenomena. This thesis evaluates a Spectra Sources Lynxx PC Plus charge coupled device CCD array as an atmospheric turbulence sensor. Data acquisition and processing programs were written to measure the image spread of a point source and centroid jitter of a point source imaged through the atmosphere. Since atmospheric jitter measurements require high image frame rates on the order of 200 images per second, a large portion of this thesis involved measurements of the times for the CCD detector, interface board and IBM compatible computer to perform their tasks. Recommendations for higher performance are presented.