The extensive use of optical technologies for solving problems of information transfer, narrow-directional electromagnetic energy transport, and image formationin an outdoor atmosphere calls for the development of adaptive correction methods and devices of that are a radical means of controlling the decrease in the efficiency of atmospheric optical systems caused by inhomogeneities in large-scale refractive indexes. These inhomogeneities are due to the turbulent mixing of atmospheric air masses and molecular and aerosol absorption in the channel of optical radiation propagation.
Adaptive optical systems (AOS) that operate in real time allow one to
* improve laser radiation focusing on a target, and hence increase the radiation intensity within the focal spot;
* decrease the image blooming of astronomical and other objects in telescopes, increase image sharpness, and decrease the probability of object recognition errors; and
* decrease the noise level and increase the data rate in optical communication systems.
Annual international conferences on adaptive optics held under the auspices of SPIE (The International Society for Optical Engineering) and adaptive optics sessions included in the programs of other conferences on atmospheric optics testify to the urgency of this problem. In 1994, a special issue of the Journal of the Optical Society of America was devoted to problems of adaptive correction of atmospheric distortions. Special annual issues of Atmospheric and Oceanic Optics are published by the Institute of Atmospheric Optics. Recently, AOS has been introduced in astronomical telescopes in many countries, including Russia, where the original Russian project of the AST-10 10-m adaptive telescope is being developed.