Efficient simulation of adaptive optics technologies for the Euro50 telescope

An efficient adaptive optics (AO) simulation code was developed, which enables first-order simulations of extremely high-order systems. The Monte-Carlo-type code employs a sparse conjugate gradient algorithm for wavefront reconstruction, and a separation of spatial frequencies into two domains to economize on the number crunching. High-order multi-conjugate adaptive optics (MCAO) systems are thereby readily simulated on a single standard PC. The code is presently being applied to MCAO design studies for the Euro50 extremely large telescope (ELT), addressing a number of issues not previously subjected to realistic simulation due to the excessive computational load. We report in this paper on the latest results obtained from simulating two specific aspects of the Euro50 AO system: turbulence prediction and laser guide star (LGS) beacon synthesis. The two studies presented here are representative examples of a number of technology studies being enabled by the new fast simulation codes