Simulating the turbulence effect on ground telescope observations is of fundamental importance for the design and test of suitable control algorithms for adaptive optics systems. In this paper we propose a multiscale approach for efficiently synthesizing turbulent phases at very high resolution. First, the turbulence is simulated at low resolution, taking advantage of a previously developed method for generating phase screens [J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 25, 515 (2008)]. Then, high-resolution phase screens are obtained as the output of a multiscale linear stochastic system. The multiscale approach significantly improves the computational efficiency of turbulence simulation with respect to recently developed methods [Opt. Express 14, 988 (2006)] [J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 25, 515 (2008)] [J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 25, 463 (2008)]. Furthermore, the proposed procedure ensures good accuracy in reproducing the statistical characteristics of the turbulent phase.
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