First on-sky results of the CO-SLIDAR Cn2 profiler

COupled SLope and scIntillation Detection And Ranging (CO-SLIDAR) is a recent profiling method of the vertical distribution of atmospheric turbulence strength (\(C_n^2\) profile). It takes advantage of correlations of slopes and of scintillation, both measured with a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor on a binary star. In this paper, we present the improved CO-SLIDAR reconstruction method of the \(C_n^2\) profile and the first on-sky results of the CO-SLIDAR profiler. We examine CO-SLIDAR latest performance in simulation, taking into account the detection noise bias and estimating error bars along with the turbulence profile. The estimated \(C_n^2\) profiles demonstrate the accuracy of the CO-SLIDAR method, showing sensitivity to both low and high altitude turbulent layers. CO-SLIDAR is tested on-sky for the first time, on the \(1.5\)~m MeO (Métrologie Optique) telescope at Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur (France). The reconstructed profiles are compared to turbulence profiles estimated from meteorological data and a good agreement is found. We discuss CO-SLIDAR's contribution in the \(C_n^2\) profilers' landscape and we propose some improvements of the instrument.