The high-fidelity modelling of optical turbulence is critical to the design and operation of a new class of emerging highly sophisticated astronomical telescopes and adaptive optics instrumentation. In this study, we perform retrospective simulations of optical turbulence over the Hawaiian islands using a mesoscale model. The simulated results are validated against thermosonde data. We focus on turbulence in the free atmosphere, above the atmospheric boundary layer. The free atmosphere is particularly important for adaptive optics performance and for sky coverage calculations and hence has significant impact on performance optimization and scheduling of observations. We demonstrate that a vertical grid spacing of 100 m or finer is needed to faithfully capture the intrinsic variabilities of observed clear air turbulence. This is a particularly timely study because the next generation of extremely large telescopes are currently under construction and their associated suite of instruments are in the design phase. Knowledge of the expected accuracy of optical turbulence simulations and real-time forecasts will enable the design teams to (i) test and develop instrument designs and (ii) formulate operational procedure.

中文翻译：

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大气中光学湍流的中尺度建模：对超高垂直网格分辨率的需求

光学湍流的高保真建模对于新型高度复杂的天文望远镜和自适应光学仪器的设计和操作至关重要。在这项研究中，我们使用中尺度模型对夏威夷群岛上的光学湍流进行了回顾性模拟。模拟结果根据热探空仪数据进行了验证。我们专注于大气边界层上方的自由大气中的湍流。自由大气对于自适应光学性能和天空覆盖计算尤为重要，因此对性能优化和观测调度有重大影响。我们证明，需要 100 m 或更细的垂直网格间距才能忠实地捕捉观察到的晴空湍流的内在变化。这是一项特别及时的研究，因为下一代超大型望远镜目前正在建造中，其相关仪器套件正处于设计阶段。了解光学湍流模拟和实时预测的预期精度将使设计团队能够 (i) 测试和开发仪器设计以及 (ii) 制定操作程序。