We present in this paper the new cute-SCIDAR instrument, entirely developed by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), delivered recently at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Paranal Observatory (Chile). This instrument, supported by the European Community (Framework Programme 6, Extremely Large Telescope Design Study), carries out the generalized SCIntillation Detection And Ranging (g-SCIDAR) technique to obtain the temporal evolution of turbulence profiles CN 2 with height. A new design was made in order to fit the VLT Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs) interfaces and control requirements. Also, a new software architecture allows a full remote control, and a data analysis pipeline provides turbulence profiles in real-time, which is the main achievement of this new cute-SCIDAR. Details of its design and results of its excellent performance are included.

Date Published: 10 July 2008
PDF: 11 pages
Proc. SPIE 7012, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes II, 701245 (10 July 2008); doi: 10.1117/12.788914

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7012:
Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes II
Larry M. Stepp; Roberto Gilmozzi, Editor(s)