Astrophysical Instrumentation

This course introduces the instruments of astrophysics and the signal processing tools associated with their operation.

The focus is on high angular resolution and high contrast instruments (interferometry, adaptive optics, coronography,...).

In addition, this course introduces the basics of digital signal processing and presents a general methodology, based on a modeling of instrumental effects, for image reconstruction or optimal exploitation of measurements.

This course aims to explain the principles of operation of a number of instruments used in astrophysics.

This understanding is necessary to evaluate the performance but also the limitations of existing instruments.

This UE gives the methodological bases of instrumental design and digital signal and image processing.

Recommended Prerequisites:

Sensors, Image Processing

Basic elements of computer science

Modeling and Simulation in Physics

Basic elements of optics (wave and geometric)

Terminal control

• Signal processing
  • Modeling of instrumental effects
  • Statistics of random signals
  • Inverse problem approach
  • Optimization under constraints
  • Maximum likelihood / maximum a posteriori estimators
  • Reconstruction problems
  • Detection problems
• Astrophysical instrumentation
  • Image formation and angular resolution
  • Telescopes
  • Optical design
  • Optical aberrations
  • Atmospheric turbulence
  • Adaptive optics
  • High contrast imaging
  • Stellar interferometry
  • Polarimetry
  • Instrumentation for the direct detection of exoplanets