Turbulence Optique, Modélisation et Instrumentation

The Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur (OCA) and the J.L. Lagrange Laboratory have a long and confirmed expertise in the atmospheric optics, site-selection and prediction of the conditions of the atmosphere. Indeed, the OCA/Lagrange team gathers different know-hows in the light propagation in turbulent media, atmospheric physics linking the geophysical flows to optical turbulence, site-testing experiments based on well calibrated instruments, and a great expertise in real time programming allowing to develop software packages for data acquisition & processing, simulation and modelling.

This expertise and a unique set of instruments to probe the conditions of the atmosphere allowed this team to participate in the selection of the major sites of all the greatest projects of existing telescopes in particular of the 8-10 meter class: GranTeCan in the Canary Islands, the European VLT & Southern Gemini in Chile, the Keck, Northern Gemini & Subaru in Hawaii. The Lagrange Laboratory team was also involved in the site selection of the future Extremely Large Telescopes (ELT) such as the 39m European ELT and the 30m American TMT (Thirty Meter Telescope). Our team was also in charge of the qualification of the site of Dome C in Antarctica whose potential in Astronomy is considerable.