Abstract 176

Submitted by Dan BURKE

Authors

D. Burke, N. Devaney, S. Gladysz

Affiliations

School of Physics, National University of Ireland Galway; School of Physics, National University of Ireland Galway, ESO

Abstract

Integral field data can be processed to reduce residual speckle. In this paper we examine approaches to faint companion detection in multi-spectral images. We will employ the Hotelling observer which is the optimal linear algorithm for signal detection. We have shown how to use this observer to estimate faint object position and brightness in the presence of residual speckles.

The direct imaging of faint companions in high contrast adaptive optics images is limited by quasi-static speckles present in the point spread function of the parent star. These speckles can be reduced by differential imaging techniques such as Angular Differential Imaging and Spectral Differential Imaging.

The work is based on simulations of adaptive optics corrected images from an ELT which contain quasi-static speckle noise. The simulation includes Angular Differential Imaging to reduce the residual speckle and subsequent multi-wavelenght processing.

We examine the feasibility of this approach on simulated ELT observations of faint companions down to exoplanet brightness.