The Software Package SPHERE: a CAOS-based numerical tool for end-to-end simulations of SPHERE/VLT

摘要

SPHERE (Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch) is the second-generation VLT instrument devoted primarily to direct imaging and characterization of exoplanets, and allowing a large number of promising observation modes. In this framework, an IDL-based end-to-end numerical tool has been developed within the problem-solving environment CAOS (or CAOS "system"): the Software Package SPHERE, dedicated to the complete and detailed simulation of the whole instrument. It hence includes detailed instrumental modeling of the extreme adaptive optics system SAXO, the dual-band imaging camera IRDIS, the Integral Field Spectrograph (IFS), and the Zuerich IMaging POLarimeter (ZIMPOL). The status of the whole package (which has now reached version 3.0) is exposed. An example of application is also detailed: a sub-system study aspect concerning the near-infrared apodized Lyot coronagraph.