Ubuntu Manpage: yao - Adaptive Optics simulation tool in yorick

NAME

       yao - Adaptive Optics simulation tool in yorick

SYNOPSIS

       Start yao with the gtk GUI:
          yao parfile.par
          yorick -i yaopy.i parfile.par

       Within yorick (no GUI, but same graphical output)
          #include yao.i
          aoread,"parfile.par"; aoinit; aoloop; go;

DESCRIPTION

Yao is a monte-carlo simulation package for adaptive optics. It includes fast core coded
in C (e.g. wavefront sensing) that are glued together by yorick interpreted code. One
defines the system to evaluate using a configuration file, and then run aoread, aoinit and
aoloop. Yao features:

* Shack-Hartmann and Curvature WFS, on or off axis.

* Stackarray (piezostack), curvature (bimorph), modal (zernike) and Tip-Tilt deformable
mirrors are supported. The altitude of conjugation is adjustable.

* An arbitrary number of WFSs and DMs can be selected, with the possibility of mixing
types. It is therefore possible (and easy) to simulate single DM systems, as well as
single non-zero conjugate, GLAO and MCAO systems.

* It supports Natural and Laser Guide Stars (or a mix), WFS with photon and read-out
noise.

* It uses a multi-layered atmospheric model, with geometrical propagation only.

* The loop execution has been optimized for speed: the critical routines have been coded
in C. Yorick is thus used as a convenient glue between lower levels optimized C calls.
Overall, this is rather efficient: A simple 6x6 Shack-Hartmann system runs at up to 650
iterations per second on an apple dual 2GHz G5 (200 iterations/sec for a full
diffraction propagation model). A 50x50 Shack-Hartmann system runs at about 3
iterations/s. A 188 curvature system runs at 25 iterations/s.

* Straightforward scriptability to probe parameter domains.

* GTK GUI to change some of the system parameters while the loop is running (new in
v4.0). This provides an educational approach to Adaptive Optics (newbies can play with
the parameters and immediately sees how the system reacts) and can also provides a
quick way to investigate the stability conditions for a newly designed system, before
entering more serious Monte-carlo simulations.

Options
help,aoread will give you information about the syntax, parameters and keywords of
aoread. See help,aoinit and help,aoloop also.

AUTHOR

       Francois Rigaut, Gemini Observatory

FILES

       Input files:

       parfile.par    A yao parameter file. This file follows a  regular  yorick  syntax.  It  is
                      directly  included  by  yorick  to define the structures used by yao. As it
                      might be a little bit daunting to create a parfile  from  scratch,  example
                      parfiles  are  provided. Their location depends on the installation. Search
                      for yao/examples (e.g. shx6x.par, curvature.par)

       screen*.fits   To simulate the atmospheric turbulence, yao needs phase  screens.  You  can
                      create  phase  screens  with  create_phase_screens().  They  might  also be
                      included in your distribution.

       Output files:

       parfile.res    After a simulation run, results are output in parfile.res in the cwd

BUGS