Climate‐based site selection for a Very Large Telescope using GIS techniques

Graham, Edward; Sarazin, M.; Beniston, Martin; Collet, Claude; Hayoz, Michael; Neun, Moritz; Casals, Paula

doi:10.1017/s1350482705001520

Cited by 12 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…They have used satellite data including various climatological parameters. FriOWL used GIS techniques by including several astro-climatological layers together: monthly mean temperature, outgoing longwave radiation, water vapor, cloud coverage, wind, aerosol index (Graham et al 2005). It's spatial resolution was around 2.5 × 2.5 • (approximately 300 × 300 km 2 ).…”

Section: Site Selectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global Site Selection for Astronomy

Aksaker

Yerli

Erdoğan

et al. 2020

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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A global site selection for astronomy was performed with 1 km spatial resolution (∼ 1 Giga pixel in size) using long term and up-to-date datasets to classify the entire terrestrial surface on the Earth. Satellite instruments are used to get the following datasets of Geographical Information System (GIS) layers: Cloud Coverage, Digital Elevation Model, Artificial Light, Precipitable Water Vapor, Aerosol Optical Depth, Wind Speed and Land Use -Land Cover. A Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) technique is applied to these datasets creating four different series where each layer will have a specific weight. We introduce for the first time a "Suitability Index for Astronomical Sites" namely, SIAS. This index can be used to find suitable locations and to compare different sites or observatories. Mid-western Andes in South America and Tibetan Plateau in west China were found to be the best in all SIAS Series. Considering all the series, less than 3 % of all terrestrial surfaces are found to be the best regions to establish an astronomical observatory. In addition to this, only approximately 10 % of all current observatories are located in good locations in all SIAS series. Amateurs, institutions or countries aiming to construct an observatory could create a short-list of potential site locations using layout of SIAS values for each country without spending time and budget. The outcomes and datasets of this study has been made available through a web site, namely "Astro GIS Database" on www.astrogis.org.

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Section: Site Selectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global Site Selection for Astronomy

Aksaker

Yerli

Erdoğan

et al. 2020

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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“…Geographic and meteorological studies into telescope siting have been done in the past (Ardeberg; 1983; Coops, le Marshall, & Rodgers 1991; Graham et al 2005; Hogg 1965; Zhu et al 2001). Historically, such studies were temporally limited.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In terms of Australian optical astronomy, a description of the AAO site selection process is found in Gascoigne, Proust, & Robins 1990. In recent years, the University of Friboug, Switzerland, has created its own Geographic Information System for the purpose of telescope siting questions, designed with the motivation of selecting a site for the proposed European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) in mind (Graham et al 2005; Sarazin, Graham, & Kurlandczyk 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing Potential New Sites for Optical Telescopes in Australia

Hotan

Tingay

Glazebrook

2013

Publ. Astron. Soc. Aust.

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In coming years, Australia may find the need to build new optical telescopes to continue local programmes, contribute to global survey projects, and form a local multi-wavelength connection for the new radio telescopes being built. In this study, we refine possible locations for a new optical telescope by studying remotely sensed meteorological infrared data to ascertain expected cloud coverage rates across Australia, and combine these data with a digital elevation model using a geographic information system. We find that the best sites within Australia for building optical telescopes are likely to be on the highest mountains in the Hamersley Range in northwest Western Australia, while the MacDonnell Ranges in the Northern Territory may also be appropriate. We believe that similar seeing values to Siding Spring should be obtainable and with significantly more observing time at the identified sites. We expect to find twice as many clear nights as at current telescope sites. These sites are thus prime locations for future on-site testing.

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“…The construction of such a telescope would constitute a major engineering challenge 3 , but current estimates indicate that the cost may be met within a budget of €1 billion 1,4,5 . A decision on whether to go-ahead with OWL project is due sometime in 2005, and a search for the best possible site in the world is well underway 6,7 . This study refers to site selection task, using the past, present and future meteorological and climatological data.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Site selection for OWL using past, present, and future climate information

et al. 2004

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Selection of an ideal site for the new generation of Overwhelmingly Large (OWL) telescopes is dependent on many climatological and meteorological parameters. Among these are cloud cover, atmospheric humidity, aerosol content, air temperature, airflow direction, strength and turbulence. Even relatively minor changes in weather patterns can have a significant effect on seeing conditions. A composite climatological database has been designed and built for the site selection task at the Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, Switzerland. The database is mainly composed of ECMWF and NCEP-NCAR reanalysis data at a global resolution of between 1° and 2.5° latitude / longitude. Using a Java™ based interface, codenamed "FriOWL", and programmed in the style of a Geographical Information System, all of this relevant information can be interrogated in order to find the best possible sites for the new telescope. Perhaps the most important variable in site selection is the interaction between air-flow and topography, as atmospheric turbulence greatly affects the image quality produced by the telescope.Global climate is changing and it will continue to do throughout the 21 st century. Therefore, it is important to ascertain the effect of global warming on potential sites. An ideal site in today's climate may not prove ideal within 20 to 50 years. It is therefore planned to update the database with future climate data, using output from global climate models. High resolution modeling of the critical parameters at preferred sites under future climates is also planned. Published in "Proceedings of SPIE-The Soci ety of Phot o-opt i cal Inst rum ent ati on Engi neers 5489: 102-112 (2004)" w hi ch shoul d be cit ed t o reference t hi s w ork. Keywords

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Climate‐based site selection for a Very Large Telescope using GIS techniques

Cited by 12 publications

References 3 publications

Global Site Selection for Astronomy

Global Site Selection for Astronomy

Testing Potential New Sites for Optical Telescopes in Australia

Site selection for OWL using past, present, and future climate information

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