Staff profile

Biography

I am currently an Associate Professor (Research) and UKRI Future Leaders Fellow in the Centre for Advanced Instrumentation, University of Durham, UK. Previous to this I worked as a postdoctoral fellow for two years at the Universidad Catolica, Chile. My research is concerned with forecasting, modelling, measuring and mitigating the Earth's atmospheric turbulence for applications such as astronomy and free-space optical communications. This has led to several novel instrumentation packages deployed at some of the world’s premier observatories and to many strong international collaborations.

Research Interests

• Astronomy and Astrophysics
• Centre for Advanced Instrumentation

Available for media contact about:

• Physics: Atmospheric turbulence, free-space optical communications and astronomical instrumentation, including Adaptive Optics
• Weather & climate:
• Advanced Instrumentation:
• Astronomy, The Universe ...:
• Engineering: Communications:

Doctoral Thesis

• Osborn, James (2010). Profiling the turbulent atmosphere and novel correction techniques for imaging and photometry in astronomy. Durham University. PhD: 158.

Journal Article

• Padovani, P., Cirasuolo, M., van der Burg, R., Cantalloube, F., George, E., Kasper, M., Leschinski, K., Martins, C., Milli, J., Möhler, S., Neeser, M., Neichel, B., Otarola, A., Sánchez-Janssen, R., Serra, B., Smette, A., Valenti, E., Verinaud, C., Vernet, J., Absil, O., Agapito, G., Andersen, M., Arcidiacono, C., Arko, M., Baudoz, P., Beltramo-Martin, O., Biancalani, E., Bierwirth, T., Burtscher, L., Carlà, G., Castro-Almazán, J.A., Cheffot, A.-L., Coccato, L., Correia, C., Fetick, R., Fiorentino, G., Fusco, T., García-Lorenzo, B., Gentile Fusillo, N., Gonzalez, O., Grazian, A., Gullieuszik, M., Hainaut, O., Ivanov, V., Kaasinen, M., Kaddad, D., Kamiński, T., Kausch, W., Kerber, F., Kimeswenger, S., Kokotanekova, R., Kuznetsov, A., Lau, A., Le Louarn, M., Lemmel, F., Liske, J., Lo Curto, G., Lucsanyi, D., Lundin, L., Noll, S., Oberti, S., Osborn, J., Masciadri, E., Milaković, D., Murphy, M.T., Pedichini, F., Pereira Santaella, M., Piazzesi, R., Piqueras López, J., Plantet, C., Prod'homme, T., Przybilla, N., Puech, M., Reid, D.T., Reiners, A., Rijnenberg, R., Rodrigues, M., Rossi, F., Routledge, L., Smit, H., Tecza, M., Thatte, N., van Boekel, R., Verma, A. & Vigan, A. (2022). The ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope Working Groups. ESO messenger 189: 23-30.
• Farley, O. J. D., Townson, M. J. & Osborn, J. (2022). FAST: Fourier domain adaptive optics simulation tool for bidirectional ground-space optical links through atmospheric turbulence. Optics Express 30(13): 23050-23064.
• Osborn, James, Blacketer, Laurence, Townson, Matthew J & Farley, Ollie J D (2022). Astrosat: forecasting satellite transits for optical astronomical observations. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 509(2): 1848-1852.
• O’Brien, Sean M, Bayliss, Daniel, Osborn, James, Bryant, Edward M, McCormac, James, Wheatley, Peter J, Acton, Jack S, Alves, Douglas R, Anderson, David R, Burleigh, Matthew R, Casewell, Sarah L, Gill, Samuel, Goad, Michael R, Henderson, Beth A, Jackman, James A G, Lendl, Monika, Tilbrook, Rosanna H, Udry, Stéphane, Vines, Jose I & West, Richard G (2022). Scintillation-limited photometry with the 20-cm NGTS telescopes at Paranal Observatory. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 509(4): 6111-6118.
• Dhillon, V S, Bezawada, N, Black, M, Dixon, S D, Gamble, T, Gao, X, Henry, D M, Kerry, P, Littlefair, S P, Lunney, D W, Marsh, T R, Miller, C, Parsons, S G, Ashley, R P, Breedt, E, Brown, A, Dyer, M J, Green, M J, Pelisoli, I, Sahman, D I, Wild, J, Ives, D J, Mehrgan, L, Stegmeier, J, Dubbeldam, C M, Morris, T J, Osborn, J, Wilson, R W, Casares, J, Muñoz-Darias, T, Pallé, E, Rodríguez-Gil, P, Shahbaz, T, Torres, M A P, de Ugarte Postigo, A, Cabrera-Lavers, A, Corradi, R L M, Domínguez, R D & García-Alvarez, D (2021). HiPERCAM: a quintuple-beam, high-speed optical imager on the 10.4-m Gran Telescopio Canarias. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 507(1): 350-366.
• Bardou, Lisa, Gendron, Eric, Rousset, Gerard, Gratadour, Damien, Basden, Alastair, Bonaccini Calia, Domenico, Buey, Tristan, Centrone, Mauro, Chemla, Fanny, Gach, Jean-Luc, Geng, Deli, Hubert, Zoltan, Laidlaw, Douglas J., Morris, Timothy J., Myers, Richard M., Osborn, James, Reeves, Andrew P., Townson, Matthew J. & Vidal, Fabrice (2021). ELT-scale elongated LGS wavefront sensing: on-sky results. Astronomy and Astrophysics 649: A158.
• Osborn, James, Townson, Matthew, Farley, Oliver, Reeves, Andrew & Mata Calvo, Ramon (2021). Adaptive Optics pre-compensated laser uplink to LEO and GEO. Optics Express 29(4): 6113-6132.
• Sinquin, Baptiste, Prengere, Léonard, Kulcsár, Caroline, Raynaud, Henri-Francois, Gendron, Eric, Osborn, James, Basden, Alastair, Conan, Jean-Marc, Bharmal, Nazim, Bardou, Lisa, Staykov, Lazar, Morris, Tim, Buey, Tristan, Chemla, Fanny & Cohen, Matthieu (2020). On-sky results for adaptive optics control with data-driven models on low-order modes. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 498(3): 3228-3240.
• Basu, S., Osborn, J., He, P. & DeMarco, A.W. (2020). Mesoscale modelling of optical turbulence in the atmosphere: the need for ultrahigh vertical grid resolution. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 497(2): 2302-2308.
• Cantalloube, F., Farley, O. J. D., Milli, J., Bharmal, N., Brandner, W., Correia, C., Dohlen, K., Henning, Th., Osborn, J., Por, E., Suárez Valles, M. & Vigan, A. (2020). Wind-driven halo in high-contrast images. Astronomy & Astrophysics 638: A98.
• Farley, O J D, Osborn, J, Morris, T, Fusco, T, Neichel, B, Correia, C & Wilson, R W (2020). Limitations imposed by optical turbulence profile structure and evolution on tomographic reconstruction for the ELT. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 494(2): 2773-2784.
• Butterley, Timothy, Wilson, Richard, Sarazin, Marc, Dubbeldam, Marc, Osborn, James & Clark, Paul (2020). Characterization of the ground layer of turbulence at Paranal using a robotic SLODAR system. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 492(1): 934-949.
• Laidlaw, Douglas J, Osborn, James, Morris, Timothy J, Basden, Alastair G, Gendron, Eric, Rousset, Gérard, Townson, Matthew J & Wilson, Richard W (2020). Automated wind velocity profiling from adaptive optics telemetry. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 491(1): 1287-1294.
• Townson, M. J., Farley, O. J. D., Orban de Xivry, G., Osborn, J. & Reeves, A. P. (2019). AOtools - a Python package for adaptive optics modelling and analysis. Optics Express 27(22): 31316-31329.
• Föhring, D, Wilson, R W, Osborn, J & Dhillon, V S (2019). Atmospheric scintillation noise in ground-based exoplanet photometry. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 489(4): 5098-5108.
• Suárez Gómez, Sergio Luis, González-Gutiérrez, Carlos, Alonso, Enrique Díez, Santos, Jesús Daniel, Rodríguez, María Luisa Sánchez, Morris, Tim, Osborn, James, Basden, Alastair, Bonavera, Laura, González, Joaquín González-Nuevo & de Cos Juez, Francisco Javier (2019). Experience with Artificial Neural Networks Applied in Multi-object Adaptive Optics. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 131(1004): 108012.
• Farley, O J D, Osborn, J, Morris, T, Fusco, T, Neichel, B, Correia, C & Wilson, R W (2019). Identifying optical turbulence profiles for realistic tomographic error in adaptive optics. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 488(1): 213-221.
• Basden, A G, Jenkins, D, Morris, T J, Osborn, J & Townson, M J (2019). Efficient implementation of pseudo open loop control for adaptive optics on Extremely Large Telescopes. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 486(2): 1774-1780.
• Laidlaw, Douglas J, Osborn, James, Morris, Timothy J, Basden, Alastair G, Beltramo-Martin, Olivier, Butterley, Timothy, Gendron, Eric, Reeves, Andrew P, Rousset, Gerard, Townson, Matthew J & Wilson, Richard W (2019). Optimizing the accuracy and efficiency of optical turbulence profiling using adaptive optics telemetry for extremely large telescopes. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 483(4): 4341-4353.
• Farley, O. J. D., Osborn, J., Morris, T., Sarazin, M., Butterley, T., Townson, M. J., Jia, P. & Wilson, R. W. (2018). Representative optical turbulence profiles for ESO Paranal by hierarchical clustering. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 481(3): 4030-4037.
• Jia, Peng, Osborn, James, Kong, Letian, Laidlaw, Douglas, Li, Caifeng, Farley, Ollie & Xue, Gang (2018). Modelling synthetic atmospheric turbulence profiles with temporal variation using Gaussian mixture model. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 480(2): 2466-2474.
• Osborn, J. & Sarazin, M. (2018). Atmospheric turbulence forecasting with a general circulation model for Cerro Paranal. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 480(1): 1278-1299.
• Peng, J., Basden, A. & Osborn, J. (2018). Ground-layer adaptive-optics system modelling for the ChineseLarge Optical/Infrared Telescope. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 479(1): 829-843.
• Osborn, J., Wilson, R., Sarazin, M., Butterley, T., Chacon, A., Derie, F., Farley, O., Haubois, X., Laidlaw, D., LeLouarn, M., Masciadri, E., Milli, J., Navarrete, J. & Townson, M. J. (2018). Optical turbulence profiling with Stereo-SCIDAR for VLT and ELT. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 478(1): 825-834.
• Basden, A.G., Bharmal, N.A., Jenkins, D., Morris, T.J., Osborn, J., Peng, J. & Staykov, L. (2018). The Durham Adaptive Optics Simulation Platform (DASP): Current status. SoftwareX 7: 63-69.
• González-Gutiérrez, Carlos, Santos, Jesús, Martínez-Zarzuela, Mario, Basden, Alistair, Osborn, James, Díaz-Pernas, Francisco & De Cos Juez, Francisco (2017). Comparative Study of Neural Network Frameworks for the Next Generation of Adaptive Optics Systems. Sensors 17(6): 1263.
• Basden, A. G., Bardou, L., Bonaccini-Calia, D., Buey, T., Centrone, M., Chemla, F., Gach, J. L., Gendron, E., Gratadour, D., Guidolin, I., Jenkins, D. R., Marchetti, E., Morris, T. J., Myers, R. M., Osborn, J., Reeves, A. P., Reyes, M., Rousset, G., Stangalini, M., Townson, M. J. & Vidal, F. (2017). On-sky demonstration of matched filters for wavefront measurements using ELT-scale elongated laser guide stars. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 466(4): 5003-5010.
• Guesalaga, A., Neichel, B., Correia, C. M., Butterley, T., Osborn, J., Masciadri, E., Fusco, T. & Sauvage, J.-F. (2017). Online estimation of the wavefront outer scale profile from adaptive optics telemetry. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 465(2): 1984-1994.
• Osborn, J., Butterley, T., Townson, M. J., Reeves, A. P., Morris, T. J. & Wilson, R. W. (2017). Turbulence velocity profiling for high sensitivity and vertical-resolution atmospheric characterization with Stereo-SCIDAR. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 464(4): 3998-4007.
• Derie, F., Wilson, R., Osborn, J., Dubbeldam, M., Sarazin, M., Ridding, R., Navarrete, J. & Lelouarn, M. (2016). Stereo-SCIDAR: Instrument and First Commissioning Results. Messenger 166: 41-46.
• Basden, A. G., Atkinson, D., Bharmal, N. A., Bitenc, U., Brangier, M., Buey, T., Butterley, T., Cano, D., Chemla, F., Clark, P., Cohen, M., Conan, J.-M., de Cos, F. J., Dickson, C., Dipper, N. A., Dunlop, C. N., Feautrier, P., Fusco, T., Gach, J. L., Gendron, E., Geng, D., Goodsell, S. J., Gratadour, D., Greenaway, A. H., Guesalaga, A., Guzman, C. D., Henry, D., Holck, D., Hubert, Z., Huet, J. M., Kellerer, A., Kulcsar, C., Laporte, P., Le Roux, B., Looker, N., Longmore, A. J., Marteaud, M., Martin, O., Meimon, S., Morel, C., Morris, T. J., Myers, R. M., Osborn, J., Perret, D., Petit, C., Raynaud, H., Reeves, A. P., Rousset, G., Sanchez Lasheras, F., Sanchez Rodriguez, M., Santos, J. D., Sevin, A., Sivo, G., Stadler, E., Stobie, B., Talbot, G., Todd, S., Vidal, F. & Younger, E. J. (2016). Experience with wavefront sensor and deformable mirror interfaces for wide-field adaptive optics systems. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 459(2): 1350-1359.
• Reeves, A. P., Morris, T. J., Myers, R. M., Bharmal, N. A. & Osborn, J. (2016). A tomographic algorithm to determine tip-tilt information from laser guide stars. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 459(1): 333-341.
• Osborn, J., Föhring, D., Dhillon, V. S. & Wilson, R. W. (2015). Atmospheric scintillation in astronomical photometry. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 452(2): 1707-1716.
• Osborn, James, Butterley, Tim, Föhring, Dora & Wilson, Richard (2015). Characterising atmospheric optical turbulence using stereo-SCIDAR. Journal of Physics: Conference Series 595(1): 012022.
• Butterley, T., Osborn, J. & Wilson, R. (2015). Error sources in SLODAR turbulence profile fitting. Journal of Physics: Conference Series 595(1): 012006.
• Föhring, D., Wilson, R.W., Osborn, J. & Dhillon, V. (2015). Scintillation Noise in Exoplanet Transit Photometry. Journal of Physics: Conference Series 595(1): 012010.
• Reeves, Andrew, Myers, Richard, Morris, Tim, Osborn, James & Bharmal, Nazim Ali (2015). Retrieving tip-tilt information from Tomographic Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics Systems. Adaptive Optics for Extremely Large Telescopes 4 – Conference Proceedings 1(1).
• Osborn, James, Butterley, Timothy, Perera, Saavidra, Fohring, Dora & Wilson, Richard (2015). Observations of the dynamic turbulence above La Palma using Stereo-SCIDAR. Adaptive Optics for Extremely Large Telescopes 4 – Conference Proceedings 1(1): ao4elt4_31607.
• Townson, M. J., Kellerer, A., Osborn, J., Butterley, T., Morris, T. & Wilson, R. W. (2015). Characterising daytime atmospheric conditions on La Palma. Journal of Physics: Conference Series 595: 012035.
• Osborn, James (2015). Scintillation correction for astronomical photometry on large and extremely large telescopes with tomographic atmospheric reconstruction. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 446(2): 1305-1311.
• Osborn, J. Guzman, D., De Cos Juez, F.J., Basden, A.G., Morris, T.J., Gendron, E., Butterley, T., Myers, R.M., Guesalaga, A., Sanchez Lasheras, F., Gomez Victoria, M., Sánchez Rodríguez, M.L., Gratadour, D. & Rousset, G. (2014). Open loop tomography with artificial neural networks on CANARY: on-sky results. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 441(3): 2508-2514.
• Shepherd, H., Osborn, J., Wilson, R.W., Butterley, T., Avila, R., Dhillon, V. & Morris, T.J. (2014). Stereo-SCIDAR: optical turbulence profiling with high sensitivity using a modified SCIDAR instrument. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 437(4): 3568-3577.
• Osborn, J (2014). Scintillation correction for astronomical photometry on large and extremely large telescopes with tomographic atmospheric reconstruction. MNRAS 446(2): 1305-1311.
• Osborn, James, De Cos Juez, Francisco Javier, Guzman, Dani, Butterley, Timothy, Myers, Richard, Guesalaga, Andrés & Laine, Jesus (2012). Using artificial neural networks for open-loop tomography. Optics Express 20(3): 2420-2434.
• De Cos Juez, F.J., Laine Cuervo, J. & Osborn, J. (2012). An ANN-based smart tomographic reconstructor in a dynamic environment. Sensors 12(12): 8895-8911.
• J. Osborn (2012). Adaptive pupil masking for quasi-static speckle suppression. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 424(3): 2284-2291.
• Osborn, James, Wilson, Richard W., Dhillon, V. S., Avila, Remy & Love, Gordon D. (2011). Conjugate-plane photometry: reducing scintillation in ground-based photometry. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 411(2): 1223-1230.
• Osborn, James, Wilson, R.\~W., Dhillon, V, Avila, R & Love, G.\~D. (2011). Conjugate Plane Photometry: Reducing Scintillation for Ground-Based Fast Photometry. MNRAS 411(2): 1223-1230.
• Osborn, J., Wilson, R.W., Butterley, T., Shepherd, H. & Sarazin, M. (2010). Profiling the surface layer of optical turbulence with SLODAR. Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 406(2): 1405-1408.
• De Cia, A., Malesani, D., Avila, R., Cox, G., Dhillon, V., Osborn, J., Wilson, R., Vreeswijk, P. M. & Jakobsson, P. (2010). GRB 100925A/MAXI J1659-152 - NOT optical observations. GRB Coord. Network, Circ. Serv. No. 11302, \#1 11302.
• Osborn, James, Myers, Richard M. & Love, Gordon D. (2009). PSF halo reduction in adaptive optics using dynamic pupil masking. Optics Express 17(20): 17279-17292.