Maréchal approximation 2026-10-05
For small residual phase errors, , where . The variance is taken after removing irrelevant constant phase. This approximation to the Strehl ratio is most useful near the diffraction limit of a telescope.
The Strehl ratio is
using the same total flux, pupil, and wavelength for both images. A value near one means that little light has been redistributed from the ideal central peak by wavefront errors. For small residual phase variance , the Maréchal approximation is , with for the residual optical-path root mean square error.