Staff profile

• Optical Atmospheric Turbulence
• Wavefront Sensing
• Free Space Optical Communications
• Adaptive Optics
• Image Processing
• Object Tracking

• Astronomy and Astrophysics
• Centre for Advanced Instrumentation

• Personal Website

Available for media contact about:

• Science & Technology:
• Advanced Instrumentation: Atmospheric Turbulence
• Advanced Instrumentation: Adaptive Optics
• Astronomy, The Universe ...: Adaptive Optics
• Advanced Instrumentation: Satellite Optical Communications
• Astronomy, The Universe ...: Satellite Optical Communications
• Advanced Instrumentation: Free Space Optical Communications
• Science & Technology: Free Space Optical Communications
• Physics:
• Advanced Instrumentation:

Conference Paper

• Townson, Matthew J. & Saunter, Christopher D. (2017), Reducing the Field of View in Correlating Wavefront Sensors for Solar Adaptive Optics, Adaptive Optics for Extremely Large Telescopes 5 Adaptive Optics for Extremely Large Telescopes 5 (AO4ELT5). Tenerife, Canary Islands, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias.
• Lombardi, G., Calia, Bonaccini, Centrone, M., Talavera, M. Reyes Garcia, Morris, T.J., Pfrommer, T., Basden, A.G., Vidal, F., Gendron, E., Rousset, G., Mayers, R.M., Osborn, J., Reeves, A.P., Talbot, R.G., Townson, M., Lavers, A. Cabrera & Postigoh, A. de Ugarte (2017), Photometry and Spectrum measurements of the Laser Guide Star beam emission at Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos with the Gran Telescope Canarias, Adaptive Optics for Extremely Large Telescopes 5 (AO4ELT5). Tenerife, Canary Islands, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, 1-7.
• Bardou, Lisa, Gendron, Eric, Rousset, Gérard, Gratadour, Damien, Basden, Alastair G., Bonaccini, Domenico, Buey, Tristan, Centrone, Mauro, Chemla, Fanny, Lombardi, Gianluca, Marchetti, Enrico, Morris, Timothy J, Myers, Richard M., Osborn, J., Townson, Matthew J., Vidal, Fabrice & Reyes Garcia-Talavera, Marcos (2017), Preliminary on-sky results of the CANARY experiment with an ELT-elongated sodium LGS, Adaptive Optics for Extremely Large Telescopes 5 (AO4ELT5). Tenerife, Canary Islands, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias.
• Townson, Matthew J., Love, Gordon D., Kellerer, Aglaè & Saunter, Christopher D. (2016), Correlation wavefront sensing for extended objects, in Marchetti, Enrico Close, Laird M. & Véran, Jean-Pierre eds, Proceedings of SPIE 9909: Adaptive Optics Systems V. Edinburgh, SPIE, 99096Q.
• Laidlaw, Douglas J., Osborn, James, Wilson, Richard W., Morris, Timothy J., Butterley, Timothy, Reeves, Andrew P., Townson, Matthew J., Gendron, Éric, Vidal, Fabrice & Morel, Carine (2016), Turbulence profiling for adaptive optics tomographic reconstructors, in Marchetti, Enrico, Close, Laird M. & Véran, Jean-Pierre eds, International Society for Optics and Photonics, 99093I.
• Townson, M. J., Kellerer, A., Osborn, J., Butterley, T., Morris, T. J. & Wilson, R. W. (2014), Daytime site characterisation of La Palma, and its relation to night-time conditions, in Suzanne K. Ramsay, McLean, Ian S. & Takami, Hideki eds, Proceedings of SPIE 9147: Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy V. Montréal, Quebec, SPIE, 91473E.

Doctoral Thesis

• Townson, Matthew J (2016). Correlation Wavefront Sensing and Turbulence Profiling for Solar Adaptive Optics. Durham University. PhD.

Journal Article

• 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.
• 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.
• Townson, M. J., Love, G. D. & Saunter, C. D. (2018). Generating artificial reference images for open loop correlation wavefront sensors. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 479(2): 1595-1602.
• 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., 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.
• 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.
• Townson, M. J., Kellerer, A. & Saunter, C. D. (2015). Improved shift estimates on extended Shack–Hartmann wavefront sensor images. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 452(4): 4022-4028.
• 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.