Turbulence profiles in the observatories of the Canary Islands: preliminary statistics for adaptive optics

Knowledge of vertical structure of the turbulence in a site is an essential input for the requirements, performances and operation of Adaptive Optics systems. The statistics of the turbulence intensity and the coherence time of the layers affect the complexity of the design and implementation of a particular MCAO system. On the other hand, the operation of such systems could be optimized if the height and velocity of the layers were available in real time. We present statistical results of the SCIDAR turbulence profiles obtained at the observatories Canary Islands. Statistics of characteristic parameters, of special interest for MCAO, are presented here, together with their temporal evolution. The results have been checked with simultaneous meteorological measurements. We have used the balloon sounding meteorological database of the Instituto Nacional de Meteorologia of the Santa Cruz station (Tenerife) to evaluate the physical conditions related with the behavior of the optical propagation. We have compared this study with the database of indirect measurements from satellites. The reliability of these data has been proved in relation to the balloon meteorological database for all height levels on Tenerife.