Speckle Noise and Dynamic Range in Coronagraphic Images

This paper is concerned with the theoretical properties of high-contrast coronagraphic images in the context of exoplanet searches. We derive and analyze the statistical properties of the residual starlight in coronagraphic images and describe the effect of a coronagraph on the speckle and photon noise. Current observations with coronagraphic instruments have shown that the main limitations to high-contrast imaging are due to residual quasi-static speckles. We tackle this problem in this paper and propose a generalization of our statistical model to include the description of static, quasi-static, and fast residual atmospheric speckles. The results provide insight into the effects on the dynamic range of wave front control, coronagraphy, active speckle reduction, and differential speckle calibration. The study is focused on ground-based imaging with extreme adaptive optics, but the approach is general enough to be applicable to space, with different parameters.

[1]  Journal of the Optical Society of America , 1950, Nature.

[2]  J. Goodman.  Statistical Properties of Laser Speckle Patterns , 1963 .

[3]  J. Goodman.  Introduction to Fourier optics , 1969 .

[4]  朝倉 利光,et al.  J.C.Dainty 編 : Laser Speckle and Related Phenomena, Springer-Verlag, Berlin and Heidelberg, 1975, 286ページ, 23.5×16cm, 15,170円, (Topics in Applied Physics, Vol.9) , 1976 .

[5]  B A Tozer,et al.  Topics in Applied Physics Vol 9: Laser Speckle and Related Phenomena , 1976 .

[6]  F. Roddier.  V The Effects of Atmospheric Turbulence in Optical Astronomy , 1981 .

[7]  J. Goodman.  Statistical Optics , 1985 .

[8]  P. McCullagh.  Tensor Methods in Statistics , 1987 .

[9]  J. Angel,et al.  Ground-based imaging of extrasolar planets using adaptive optics , 1994, Nature.

[10]  N. L. Johnson,et al.  Continuous Univariate Distributions. , 1995 .

[11]  M. Shao,et al.  HIGH-DYNAMIC-RANGE IMAGING USING A DEFORMABLE MIRROR FOR SPACE CORONOGRAPHY , 1995, astro-ph/9502042.

[12]  Rene Racine,et al.  THE TELESCOPE POINT SPREAD FUNCTION , 1996 .

[13]  D. Mouillet,et al.  A STELLAR CORONOGRAPH FOR THE COME-ON-PLUS ADAPTIVE OPTICS SYSTEM. II. FIRST ASTRONOMICAL RESULTS , 1997 .

[14]  M P Cagigal,et al.  Speckle statistics in partially corrected wave fronts. , 1998, Optics letters.

[15]  J. Hardy,et al.  Adaptive Optics for Astronomical Telescopes , 1998 .

[16]  M P Cagigal,et al.  Rician distribution to describe speckle statistics in adaptive optics. , 1999, Applied optics.

[17]  Gordon A. H. Walker,et al.  Speckle Noise and the Detection of Faint Companions , 1999 .

[18]  Cagigal,et al.  Residual phase variance in partial correction: application to the estimate of the light intensity statistics , 2000, Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics, image science, and vision.

[19]  A. Labeyrie,et al.  The Four-Quadrant Phase-Mask Coronagraph. I. Principle , 2000 .

[20]  I. Baraffe,et al.  Theory of Low-Mass Stars and Substellar Objects , 2000 .

[21]  C. Marois,et al.  Efficient Speckle Noise Attenuation in Faint Companion Imaging , 2000 .

[22]  Eric E. Bloemhof,et al.  Palomar adaptive optics project: status and performance , 2000, Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation.

[23]  Bernhard R. Brandl,et al.  PHARO: A Near‐Infrared Camera for the Palomar Adaptive Optics System , 2001 .

[24]  P. Nisenson,et al.  Detection of Earth-like Planets Using Apodized Telescopes , 2001, astro-ph/0101241.

[25]  D. A. Golimowski,et al.  A Coronagraphic Survey for Companions of Stars within 8 Parsecs , 2001 .

[26]  Eric E. Bloemhof,et al.  Behavior of Remnant Speckles in an Adaptively Corrected Imaging System , 2001 .

[27]  M P Cagigal,et al.  Non-Gaussian speckle statistics in adaptive-optics partial compensation. , 2001, Optics letters.

[28]  D. Brillinger.  Time series - data analysis and theory , 1981, Classics in applied mathematics.

[29]  A. Sivaramakrishnan,et al.  Ground-based Coronagraphy with High-order Adaptive Optics , 2000, Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation.

[30]  W. Traub,et al.  A Coronagraph with a Band-limited Mask for Finding Terrestrial Planets , 2002, astro-ph/0203455.

[31]  D. Spergel,et al.  Notch-Filter Masks: Practical Image Masks for Planet-finding Coronagraphs , 2002, astro-ph/0209271.

[32]  Bruce A. Macintosh,et al.  Speckle Decorrelation and Dynamic Range in Speckle Noise-limited Imaging , 2002 .

[33]  University of British Columbia,et al.  Effects of Quasi-Static Aberrations in Faint Companion Searches , 2002 .

[34]  F. Combes,et al.  SF2A-2004: Semaine de l'Astrophysique Francaise , 2005 .

[35]  H. Ford,et al.  Imaging Spectroscopy for Extrasolar Planet Detection , 2002, astro-ph/0209078.

[36]  C. Aime,et al.  Total coronagraphic extinction of rectangular apertures using linear prolate apodizations , 2002 .

[37]  Russell B. Makidon,et al.  The Structure of High Strehl Ratio Point-Spread Functions , 2003 .

[38]  C. Aime,et al.  Stellar coronagraphy with prolate apodized circular apertures , 2003 .

[39]  High-Contrast Imaging for Exo-Planet Detection. , 2003 .

[40]  Russell B. Makidon,et al.  The adaptive optics point-spread function at moderate and high Strehl ratios , 2003, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[41]  C. Aime,et al.  Achromatic dual-zone phase mask stellar coronagraph , 2003 .

[42]  B. Krauskopf,et al.  Proc of SPIE , 2003 .

[43]  R. Vanderbei,et al.  Extrasolar Planet Finding via Optimal Apodized-Pupil and Shaped-Pupil Coronagraphs , 2003 .

[44]  P. H. Hauschildt,et al.  Evolutionary models for cool brown dwarfs and extrasolar giant planets. The case of HD 209458 , 2003 .

[45]  Eric E. Bloemhof.  Suppression of Speckle Noise by Speckle Pinning in Adaptive Optics , 2003 .

[46]  Near-IR coronagraphic imaging of the companion to HR 7672 , 2003, astro-ph/0308426.

[47]  Claude Aime,et al.  Improvement of coronagraphy using optimal apodizations , 2003, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[48]  A. Boccaletti,et al.  The Four‐Quadrant Phase Mask Coronagraph. IV. First Light at the Very Large Telescope , 2004 .

[49]  Claude Aime,et al.  The Usefulness and Limits of Coronagraphy in the Presence of Pinned Speckles , 2004 .

[50]  Russell B. Makidon,et al.  The Lyot project: toward exoplanet imaging and spectroscopy , 2004, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[51]  Robert A. Brown.  New Information from Radial Velocity Data Sets , 2004 .

[52]  Claude Aime,et al.  The effect of a coronagraph on the statistics of Adaptive Optics Pinned Speckles , 2004 .

[53]  Bruce A. Macintosh,et al.  eXtreme Adaptive Optics Planet Imager: overview and status , 2004, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[54]  Thierry Fusco,et al.  On- and off-axis statistical behavior of adaptive-optics-corrected short-exposure Strehl ratio. , 2004, Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics, image science, and vision.

[55]  Adam Burrows,et al.  Spectra and Diagnostics for the Direct Detection of Wide-Separation Extrasolar Giant Planets , 2004, astro-ph/0401522.

[56]  E E Bloemhof.  Static point-spread function correction dominating higher-order speckle terms at high adaptive correction. , 2004, Optics letters.

[57]  B. Macintosh,et al.  Spatially filtered wave-front sensor for high-order adaptive optics. , 2004, Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics, image science, and vision.

[58]  Eric E. Bloemhof.  Remnant Speckles in a Highly Corrected Coronagraph , 2004 .

[59]  Robert A. Brown.  Single-Visit Photometric and Obscurational Completeness , 2005, astro-ph/0503077.

[60]  D. Mawet,et al.  Annular Groove Phase Mask Coronagraph , 2005 .

[61]  C. Alvarez,et al.  A Search for Hot Massive Extrasolar Planets around Nearby Young Stars with the Adaptive Optics System NACO , 2005, astro-ph/0502376.

[62]  O. Guyon.  Limits of Adaptive Optics for High-Contrast Imaging , 2005, astro-ph/0505086.

[63]  R. Soummer.  Apodized Pupil Lyot Coronagraphs for Arbitrary Telescope Apertures , 2004, astro-ph/0412221.

[64]  C. Aime.  Principle of an Achromatic Prolate Apodized Lyot Coronagraph , 2005 .

[65]  M. D. Perrin,et al.  An Analysis of Fundamental Waffle Mode in Early AEOS Adaptive Optics Images , 2005 .

[66]  C. Aime.  Radon approach to shaped and apodized apertures for imaging exoplanets , 2005 .

[67]  C. Marois,et al.  TRIDENT: an Infrared Differential Imaging Camera Optimized for the Detection of Methanated Substellar Companions , 2005 .

[68]  T. Fusco,et al.  Fundamental limitations on Earth-like planet detection with extremely large telescopes , 2005 .

[69]  B. Macintosh,et al.  Angular Differential Imaging: A Powerful High-Contrast Imaging Technique , 2005, astro-ph/0512335.

[70]  G. Swartzlander,et al.  Optical vortex coronagraph. , 2005, Optics letters.

[71]  Russell B. Makidon,et al.  Low-Order Aberrations in Band-limited Lyot Coronagraphs , 2005, astro-ph/0507539.

[72]  Ph. Héraudeau,et al.  SF2A-2005: Semaine de l'Astrophysique Francaise , 2005 .

[73]  Rémi Soummer,et al.  Data processing for exoplanet detection using direct imaging , 2005, Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union.

[74]  J. P. Laboratory,et al.  High-Contrast Imaging from Space: Speckle Nulling in a Low-Aberration Regime , 2005, astro-ph/0510597.

[75]  Frantz Martinache,et al.  Direct detection of the brown dwarf GJ 802B with adaptive optics masking interferometry , 2006 .

[76]  R. Vanderbei,et al.  On representing and correcting wavefront errors in high-contrast imaging systems. , 2006, Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics, image science, and vision.

[77]  James R. Graham,et al.  Speckle Statistics in Adaptively Corrected Images , 2006 .

[78]  Jean-Pierre Véran,et al.  Analytical modeling of adaptive optics: foundations of the phase spatial power spectrum approach. , 2006, Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics, image science, and vision.

[79]  C. Aime,et al.  Direct Imaging of Exoplanets: Science & Techniques , 2006 .

[80]  C. Marois,et al.  Accurate Astrometry and Photometry of Saturated and Coronagraphic Point Spread Functions , 2006, astro-ph/0604256.

[81]  Brent Ellerbroek,et al.  Advances in Adaptive Optics II , 2006 .

[82]  Russell B. Makidon,et al.  The Challenges of Coronagraphic Astrometry , 2006 .

[83]  I. McLean,et al.  Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy , 2006 .

[84]  R'emi Soummer,et al.  The Strehl Ratio in Adaptive Optics Images: Statistics and Estimation , 2007, 0706.1718.

[85]  W. Traub,et al.  A laboratory demonstration of the capability to image an Earth-like extrasolar planet , 2007, Nature.

[86]  Russell B. Makidon,et al.  Temporal Evolution of Coronagraphic Dynamic Range and Constraints on Companions to Vega , 2006, astro-ph/0609337.

[87]  Susan A. Murphy,et al.  Monographs on statistics and applied probability , 1990 .

[88]  R. Rosenfeld.  Nature , 2009, Otolaryngology--head and neck surgery : official journal of American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.