SOWAT: Speckle Observations with Alleviated Turbulence

Adaptive optics (AO) systems and image reconstruction algorithms are indispensable tools when it comes to high-precision astrometry. In this paper, we analyze the potential of combining both techniques, i.e., by applying image reconstruction on partially AO-corrected short exposures. Therefore we simulate speckle clouds with and without AO corrections and create synthetic observations. We apply holographic image reconstruction to the obtained observations and find that (i) the residual wavefronts decorrelate slowlier and to a lower limit when AO systems are used, (ii) the same reference stars yield a better reconstruction, and (iii) using fainter reference stars we achieve a similar image quality. These results suggest that holographic imaging of speckle observations is feasible with ∼2─3× longer integration times and ∼3 mag fainter reference stars, to obtain diffraction-limited imaging from low-order AO systems that are less restricted in sky coverage than typical high-order AO systems.