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Overview

Professor James Osborn

Professor (Research) - UKRI FLF


Affiliations
Affiliation
Professor (Research) - UKRI FLF in the Department of Physics
Associate Fellow in the Institute of Advanced Study

Biography

I am the founding director of the Durham University Space Research Centre (SPARC) a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow and a Professor in the Centre for Advanced Instrumentation (CfAI), Durham University, UK. 

In the CfAI, I lead the free-space optics group, studying how light travels through the Earth’s atmosphere. Initially this focussed on instrumentation for astronomy, building the scientific equipment that enables astronomers to use large ground-based telescopes to study planets orbiting distant stars, how galaxies form and evolve and even the nature of dark matter in the universe. More recently I have focussed on exchanging technology and techniques from astronomy into emerging sectors such as free-space optical communications (enabling global high-bandwidth and secure connectivity) and space surveillance and tracking (enabling the sustainable exploitation of space).

My personal research is concerned with forecasting, modelling, measuring and mitigating the Earth’s atmospheric turbulence. I have built instruments that are active at sites all over the world for various research organisations, the data from which are actively used by several research communities.

Research Interests:

Atmospheric Physics

The Earth’s turbulent atmosphere has two detrimental effects on light propagation, i) the image appears to wobble and blurs, losing spatial information, and ii) the brightness varies, seen as twinkling and called scintillation, limiting the temporal photometric precision. My research is concerned with forecasting, modelling, measuring and mitigating this atmospheric turbulence.

Free-space Optical Communications

The large bandwidth available from using visible light, as opposed to conventional radio communication, will enable 10-100 times higher data rates, helping us to meet demands for higher capacity data transmissions that societies around the world have become accustomed to, as well as to increase the volume of data retrieved from space science satellites used for Earth observation, inter-planetary and deep space missions.

Astronomical Instrumentation

The full potential of ground based optical telescopes can only be realised with the careful application of sophisticated instrumentation. I am particularly interested in Adaptive Optics technologies for wide-field and high-contrast imaging and high-precision time-resolved photometry.

Space Surveillance and Tracking

The detection, identification and tracking of objects in space (active satellites, debris, rocket bodies) is critical for the sustainable use of space for future generations. I develop innovative technology to accurately identify, track and characterise objects in space.

Space Sustainability

I am enthusiastic about multi-disciplinary research. Using novel instruments and techniques to enable the sustainable use of space, to grow the capacity and capabilities of space applications while protecting the space environment for present and future generations. This includes working with experts across law, international relations, and business operations to build a holistic model of the space environment.

Publications

Conference Paper

  • Distortion of visible daytime multi-conjugate adaptive optics control
    Kongkaew, P., Morris, T. J., & Osborn, J. (2024). Distortion of visible daytime multi-conjugate adaptive optics control. In D. Schmidt, E. Vernet, & K. J. Jackson (Eds.), Proceedings Volume 13097, Adaptive Optics Systems IX. SPIE. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3019648
  • The 24hSHIMM: a continuous day and night turbulence monitor for optical communications
    Griffiths, R., Osborn, J., Farley, O., Butterley, T., Townson, M., & Wilson, R. (2023). The 24hSHIMM: a continuous day and night turbulence monitor for optical communications. In H. Hemmati & B. S. Robinson (Eds.), Proceedings Volume 12413, Free-Space Laser Communications XXXV. SPIE. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2648789
  • Atmospheric optical turbulence analysis in London’s financial district
    Westerby-Griffin, L., Osborn, J., Farley, O. J. D., Griffiths, R., & Love, G. D. (2023). Atmospheric optical turbulence analysis in London’s financial district. In H. Hemmati & B. S. Robinson (Eds.), Proceedings Volume 12413, Free-Space Laser Communications XXXV. SPIE. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2648907
  • Atmospheric optical turbulence measurements at varying elevation angles
    Westerby-Griffin, L., Osborn, J., Farley, O. J. D., Griffiths, R., & Love, G. D. (2023, January 28 – 2023, February 3). Atmospheric optical turbulence measurements at varying elevation angles [Conference paper] (H. Hemmati & B. S. Robinson, Eds.). Presented at Free-Space Laser Communications XXXV, San Francisco, United States. SPIE.
  • Correction of photometric scintillation noise via tomographic wavefront sensing: simulation and on-sky demonstration
    Hartley, K., Farley, O., Townson, M. J., Osborn, J., & Wilson, R. W. (2022). Correction of photometric scintillation noise via tomographic wavefront sensing: simulation and on-sky demonstration. In D. Schmidt, L. Schreiber, & E. Vernet (Eds.), Proceedings Volume 12185, Adaptive Optics Systems VIII (p. 326). SPIE. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2628703
  • Correction of finite spatial and temporal sampling effects in stereo-SCIDAR
    Butterley, T., Sarazin, M., Le Louarn, M., Osborn, J., & Farley, O. J. (2020). Correction of finite spatial and temporal sampling effects in stereo-SCIDAR. Presented at SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation 2020, Online. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2562559
  • Photometry and Spectrum measurements of the Laser Guide Star beam emission at Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos with the Gran Telescope Canarias
    Lombardi, G., Calia, B., Centrone, M., Talavera, M. R. G., Morris, T., Pfrommer, T., Basden, A., Vidal, F., Gendron, E., Rousset, G., Mayers, R., Osborn, J., Reeves, A., Talbot, R., Townson, M., Lavers, A. C., & Postigoh, A. de U. (2017). Photometry and Spectrum measurements of the Laser Guide Star beam emission at Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos with the Gran Telescope Canarias. In Proceedings of the Adaptive Optics for Extremely Large Telescopes 5 (AO4ELT5) : Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, June 25-30, 2017. (pp. 1-7). Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias. https://doi.org/10.26698/ao4elt5.0045
  • Preliminary on-sky results of the CANARY experiment with an ELT-elongated sodium LGS
    Bardou, L., Gendron, E., Rousset, G., Gratadour, D., Basden, A. G., Bonaccini, D., Buey, T., Centrone, M., Chemla, F., Lombardi, G., Marchetti, E., Morris, T. J., Myers, R. M., Osborn, J., Townson, M. J., Vidal, F., & Reyes Garcia-Talavera, M. (2017). Preliminary on-sky results of the CANARY experiment with an ELT-elongated sodium LGS. In Proceedings of the Adaptive Optics for Extremely Large Telescopes 5 (AO4ELT5) : Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, June 25-30, 2017.. Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias. https://doi.org/10.26698/ao4elt5.0126
  • Turbulence profiling for adaptive optics tomographic reconstructors
    Laidlaw, D. J., Osborn, J., Wilson, R. W., Morris, T. J., Butterley, T., Reeves, A. P., Townson, M. J., Gendron, Éric, Vidal, F., & Morel, C. (2016, July). Turbulence profiling for adaptive optics tomographic reconstructors [Conference paper] (E. Marchetti, L. M. Close, & J.-P. Véran, Eds.).
  • Final two-stage MOAO on-sky demonstration with CANARY
    Gendron, E., Morris, T., Basden, A., Vidal, F., Atkinson, D., Bitenc, U., Buey, T., Chemla, F., Cohen, M., Dickson, C., Dipper, N., Feautrier, P., Gach, J.-L., Gratadour, D., Henry, D., Huet, J.-M., Morel, C., Morris, S., Myers, R., … Younger, E. (2016). Final two-stage MOAO on-sky demonstration with CANARY (E. Marchetti, L. M. Close, & J.-P. Véran, Eds.). Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2231432
  • Daytime site characterisation of La Palma, and its relation to night-time conditions
    Townson, M., Kellerer, A., Osborn, J., Butterley, T., Morris, T., & Wilson, R. (2014). Daytime site characterisation of La Palma, and its relation to night-time conditions. In K. . R. Suzanne, I. S. McLean, & H. Takami (Eds.), Ground-based and airborne instrumentation for astronomy V.. SPIE. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2056451

Doctoral Thesis

Journal Article

Supervision students