Chromatic effects of the atmosphere on astronomical adaptive optics

The atmosphere introduces chromatic errors that may limit the performance of adaptive optics (AO) systems on large telescopes. Various aspects of this problem have been considered in the literature over the past two decades. It is necessary to revisit this problem in order to examine the effect on currently planned systems, including very high-order AO on current 8-10 m class telescopes and on future 30-42 m extremely large telescopes. We review the literature on chromatic effects and combine an analysis of all effects in one place. We examine implications for AO and point out some effects that should be taken into account in the design of future systems. In particular we show that attention should be paid to chromatic pupil shifts, which may arise in components such as atmospheric dispersion compensators. (c) 2008 Optical Society of America.