Discovery of Calm Astronomical Sites Over the Antarctic Continent

A calm astronomical site means a site where astronomical observation would be less likely to be interfered with by optical turbulence. Previous turbulence measurements at a few sites in Antarctica have demonstrated very calm atmospheric conditions here. So far, to realize a wide range of measurement...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astronomical Journal
Main Authors: Qike Yang, Xiaoqing Wu, Chun Qing, Tao Luo, Xuebin Li, Shengcheng Cui, Pengfei Wu, Xianmei Qian, Zhiyuan Wang, Xiaodan Hu, Yiming Guo, Chong Yan, Zhi Qiao
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: IOP Publishing 2023
Subjects:
Atmospheric effects
Astronomical seeing
Astronomy
QB1-991
Antarctic
The Antarctic
Antarc*
Antarctica
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/acbb02
https://doaj.org/article/aa2ea6e23a4645c096cfc196b2bd3380
Description
Summary:A calm astronomical site means a site where astronomical observation would be less likely to be interfered with by optical turbulence. Previous turbulence measurements at a few sites in Antarctica have demonstrated very calm atmospheric conditions here. So far, to realize a wide range of measurements of the turbulence conditions above the Antarctic plateau will be a great hardship. Thus, in this study, the numerical weather model outputs provided by the Antarctic Mesoscale Prediction System (AMPS) have been used. Based on the AMPS outputs, the boundary layer height and the atmospheric Richardson number were obtained, from which the turbulence conditions above the Antarctic plateau have been evaluated. Finally, a statistical conclusion evaluating the total atmospheric turbulence above the whole Antarctic continent for an entire year is first reported. We find some sites (or regions) have a calmer atmosphere than Dome A; this is of great instructional significance for planning the next generation of ground-based optical astronomical telescopes.

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