Using wavefront sensor information in image post-processing to improve the resolution of telescopes with small aberrations

Due to mechanical aspects of fabrication, launch, and operational environment, space telescope optics can suffer from unforseen aberrations, detracting from their intended diffraction-limited performance goals. Presented here are the results of a simulation study designed to explore how wavefront aberration information could be used in post- processing to improve the effective resolution of such telescopes. Knowledge of the telescope pupil aberration can be effectively used in a post-processing paradigm referred to as deconvolution from wavefront sensing (DWFS). Simulation results show that even when relatively noisy wavefront sensor information is used on images experiencing up to 10% of a wave root-mean-squared (RMS) of unspecified wavefront error, the signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of the optical transfer function (OTF) can be increased by a factor of 1.5, and RMS OTF phasor angle errors can be approximately cut in half, across a wide range of spatial frequencies. Post-processing consisted of correction of the Fourier phase of the image spectra using information from wavefront sensing, without the use of inverse filtering or adaptive optics compensation.