ultra: a python package for pm-level wavefront tolerance analysis for exo-earth imaging

ultra is a python package developed to estimate maximum allowable wavefront-error drifts for Earth-like planet imaging with future space telescopes. The package comprises various analytical tools to simulate wavefront error propagation through a coronagraphic system, calculate static tolerances using PASTIS algorithm and dynamic tolerances with a close-loop recursive algorithm. The package supports wavefront-error budget analysis for multiple segmented-primary mirror architectures with their optimized coronagraphic masks.

Example

Figure : Example of a wavefront error stability analysis results for a 19-segment SCDA telescope design, colorbar represents maximum allowable dynamic surface deformation to achieve a stable dark hole contrast.

The ultra package is developed by the ULTRA research team at the Space Telescope Science Institute, and is privately hosted at github.com/spacetelescope/ULTRA .

Getting started with ultra

To install and use the package users should read the instructions mentioned in the contents.

Contents

How to cite ultra

Users are encouraged to cite one or more of the following references when using ultra package.

  • Coyle et al. 2023, “Continued maturation of enabling component-level technologies for large, segmented ultra-stable telescopes”, Proc. SPIE. 12676

  • Sahoo et al. 2022, “Segment-level thermal sensitivity analysis for exo-Earth imaging.”, Proc. SPIE. 12180

If there is no appropriate place in the body of text to cite these references, please include something along the lines of the following in your acknowledgements: “This research made use of ultra, a python package to compute pm-level wavefront error budget for exo-earth imaging.”

Acknowledgements