Sunrise iii: The Wavefront Correction System
Abstract This paper describes the wave-front correction and image stabilisation system (CWS) developed for the Sunrise iii balloon-borne telescope, and provides information about its performance as measured during the integration into the telescope and during the 2024 science flight. The fast image stabilisation is done by a correlation tracker (CT) and a fast tip-tilt mirror, low order aberrations such as defocus and coma are measured by a six-element Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor (WFS) and corrected by an active telescope secondary mirror for automated focus and manual coma correction. The CWS is specified to deliver a stabilised image with a precision of 0.005 arcsec (rms). The autofocus adjustment is specified to maintain a focus stability of 0.01 waves in the focal plane of the CWS.
Authors
- A. Álvarez‐Herrero (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9228-3412)
- D. Orozco Suárez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8829-1938)
- Tobias Preis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9185-0892)
- Thomas Sonner
- T. L. Riethmüller (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6317-4380)
- A. Lagg (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1459-7074)
- F. Heidecke
- Masahito Kubo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5616-2808)
- Thomas Berkefeld
- P. N. Bernasconi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0787-8954)
- Yukio Katsukawa (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5054-8782)
- H. N. Smitha (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3490-6532)
- B. Grauf
- E. Nakai
- A. Gandorfer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9972-9840)
- A. Feller (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-4425-599X)
- Jose Carlos del Toro Iniesta
- Sami K. Solanki
- Reiner Volkmer
- Valentin Martinez Pillet
- Alexander Bell
- Michael Carpenter
Institutions
- The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI (JP)
- Institut für Sonnenphysik (DE)
- Swedish Space Corporation (SE)
- Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (US)
- Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (DE)
- Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial (ES)
- Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (ES)
- Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (ES)
- National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (JP)
- The University of Tokyo (JP)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Solar Physics
- Published
- 2026-04-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-026-02649-7
- Primary Topic
- Adaptive optics and wavefront sensing
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00