Results of recent and ongoing site programs
Seeing measurements at the astronomical observatories in China
October 8, 09:25 – 09:55Liyong Liu (NAOC)
Site testing on seeing conditions of the astronomical observatories over China are briefly reviewed, including Xionglong station of NAOC, Gaomeigu station of Yunnan Observatory, Delingha station of Purple Mountain Observatory. Seeing measurements at the two candidate sites of western China, Oma in Tibet and Karasu in Pamirs, are also reported. The future plan for monitoring optical turbulence profiles in western China is introduced.
Site characterization studies for the Iranian National Observatory
October 8, 09:55 – 10:20Habib Khosroshahi (IPM)
Since 2009 we have been monitoring two sites at the altitudes of 3000m and 3600m for the construction of the optical observatory hosting a 3.4m telescope as a follow-up of the earlier site selection project. Weather, seeing, sky brightness and micro-thermal measurements have been on the agenda. Night-time windrose in fall and winter shows a clear SW wind dominance, while other seasons show bimodal distributions. Each site is also equipped with two DIMM seeing monitor, one pointed at the Polaris and one manually operated. Micro-thermal masts are also installed in numbers to further characterise the ground level turbulence at the two sites.
Coffee break
October 8, 10:20 – 10:50Turbulence ProямБling at the SAAO
October 8, 10:50 – 11:15Timothy Pickering (SAAO)
In early 2010 the SAAO commissioned a new MASS-DIMM device to measure the turbulence profile of the atmosphere above the SAAO site near Sutherland, South Africa. For the first month of its operation it worked in tandem with a SLODAR device run by a team at the University of Durham (R. Wilson & T. Butterley). The SLODAR system was tuned to probe the first 500 metres of the atmosphere which is a perfect complement to the MASS which is sensitive to layers above 500 metres. We will present and compare the results of these observations as well MASS-DIMM and DIMM observations obtained since then.
Cloud cover and water vapor observed at Oma site,Tibet
October 8, 11:15 – 11:40Wang Hongshuai (NAOC)
Site Testing in West China
October 8, 11:40 – 12:05Yongqiang Yao (NAOC)
The astronomical site survey project over high plateau in west China has been carried out by NAOC since 2003. Two sites, i.e. Karasu on eastern Pamirs, and Oma in western Tibet, were selected in 2005 out of a dozen of candidate sites, to make further long-term monitoring observations. In this paper, we will review the site survey activities in the past years, and present the site-testing results on the Oma site, including cloud cover, seeing, water vapor, transparency and sky brightness.
Some results after 10 years of site testing at Concordia
October 8, 12:05 – 12:45Eric Fossat (U. Nice)
