Machine learning-based seeing estimation and prediction using multi-layer meteorological data at Dome A, Antarctica ...

• Main Authors: Hou, Xu, Hu, Yi, Du, Fujia, Ashley, Michael C. B., Pei, Chong, Shang, Zhaohui, Ma, Bin, Wang, Erpeng, Huang, Kang
• Format: Report
• Language: unknown
• Published: arXiv 2023
• Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics astro-ph.IM; FOS Physical sciences; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2304.03587; https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.03587

Atmospheric seeing is one of the most important parameters for evaluating and monitoring an astronomical site. Moreover, being able to predict the seeing in advance can guide observing decisions and significantly improve the efficiency of telescopes. However, it is not always easy to obtain long-term and continuous seeing measurements from a standard instrument such as differential image motion monitor (DIMM), especially for those unattended observatories with challenging environments such as Dome A, Antarctica. In this paper, we present a novel machine learning-based framework for estimating and predicting seeing at a height of 8 m at Dome A, Antarctica, using only the data from a multi-layer automated weather station (AWS). In comparison with DIMM data, our estimate has a root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.18 arcsec, and the RMSE of predictions 20 minutes in the future is 0.12 arcsec for the seeing range from 0 to 2.2 arcsec. Compared with the persistence, where the forecast is the same as the last data ... : 13 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Computing ...