The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is a joint project of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in order to study the universe in the infrared spectrum. Being the largest airborne observatory in the world it consists of a modified Boeing 747SP operating at and above an altitude of 12 km. In particular, a 2.7 m reflecting telescope is integrated in a closable cavity in the rear part of the aircraft body. Once the cavity door is opened for skywatching during operational flights, the telescope is exposed to the free atmosphere and thus to flow-induced vibrations and acoustic fluctuations, which can impact its pointing stability and image quality.
The goal of this study thesis was to analyze the aeroacoustic behavior of the SOFIA telescope cavity by means of available flight test data. Therefore, an optimized postprocessing procedure with powerful graphical capabilities has been implemented in order to interpret the test results qualitatively and quantitatively as well as to compare them with previous theoretical findings and numerical simulations. In this way, this analysis provides further important insights as well as a deeper understanding of critical aeroacoustic behavior of the SOFIA configuration and thus contributes to the interdisciplinary telescope pointing optimization.
