Atmospheric turbulence at the South Pole and its implications for astronomy
To investigate the low-atmosphere turbulence at the South Pole, we have measured, using a SODAR, the temperature fluctuation constant ( CT2) during winter, as a function of altitude up to 890 m. We found that the turbulence was on average concentrated inside a boundary layer sitting below 270 m. Whi...
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ftunswworks:oai:unsworks.library.unsw.edu.au:1959.4/39137 2023-05-15T18:22:02+02:00 Atmospheric turbulence at the South Pole and its implications for astronomy Travouillon, Tony Ashley, Michael Burton, Michael Storey, John Loewenstein, R 2003 http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/39137 https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20021814 EN eng http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/39137 http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20021814 metadata only access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_14cb CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/au/ CC-BY-NC-ND urn:ISSN:0004-6361 Astronomy & Astrophysics, 400, 1163-1172 journal article http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501 2003 ftunswworks https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20021814 2022-08-09T07:43:28Z To investigate the low-atmosphere turbulence at the South Pole, we have measured, using a SODAR, the temperature fluctuation constant ( CT2) during winter, as a function of altitude up to 890 m. We found that the turbulence was on average concentrated inside a boundary layer sitting below 270 m. While at the peak of winter the turbulence was stable and clearly bounded, during other seasons there was a more complex turbulence profile which extended to higher altitudes. We found that this behaviour could be explained by the horizontal wind speed conditions whose altitude profile closely matched the turbulence profile. We also observed the presence of a vertical wind velocity change of direction at an altitude range corresponding to the turbulent region. The turbulence gives rise to an average seeing of $1.73^{\prime\prime}$, which compares poorly with the best astronomy sites. The location of the turbulence, however, means that the seeing quickly decreases above the boundary layer (dropping to $0.37^{\prime\prime}$ above 300 m). We also have recorded the largest isoplanatic angle ( $\theta_{\rm AO}=3.3^{\prime\prime}$) and the longest coherence time ( $\tau_{\rm AO}=2.9$ ms) of any ground-based site. Article in Journal/Newspaper South pole UNSW Sydney (The University of New South Wales): UNSWorks South Pole |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
UNSW Sydney (The University of New South Wales): UNSWorks |
op_collection_id |
ftunswworks |
language |
English |
description |
To investigate the low-atmosphere turbulence at the South Pole, we have measured, using a SODAR, the temperature fluctuation constant ( CT2) during winter, as a function of altitude up to 890 m. We found that the turbulence was on average concentrated inside a boundary layer sitting below 270 m. While at the peak of winter the turbulence was stable and clearly bounded, during other seasons there was a more complex turbulence profile which extended to higher altitudes. We found that this behaviour could be explained by the horizontal wind speed conditions whose altitude profile closely matched the turbulence profile. We also observed the presence of a vertical wind velocity change of direction at an altitude range corresponding to the turbulent region. The turbulence gives rise to an average seeing of $1.73^{\prime\prime}$, which compares poorly with the best astronomy sites. The location of the turbulence, however, means that the seeing quickly decreases above the boundary layer (dropping to $0.37^{\prime\prime}$ above 300 m). We also have recorded the largest isoplanatic angle ( $\theta_{\rm AO}=3.3^{\prime\prime}$) and the longest coherence time ( $\tau_{\rm AO}=2.9$ ms) of any ground-based site. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Travouillon, Tony Ashley, Michael Burton, Michael Storey, John Loewenstein, R |
spellingShingle |
Travouillon, Tony Ashley, Michael Burton, Michael Storey, John Loewenstein, R Atmospheric turbulence at the South Pole and its implications for astronomy |
author_facet |
Travouillon, Tony Ashley, Michael Burton, Michael Storey, John Loewenstein, R |
author_sort |
Travouillon, Tony |
title |
Atmospheric turbulence at the South Pole and its implications for astronomy |
title_short |
Atmospheric turbulence at the South Pole and its implications for astronomy |
title_full |
Atmospheric turbulence at the South Pole and its implications for astronomy |
title_fullStr |
Atmospheric turbulence at the South Pole and its implications for astronomy |
title_full_unstemmed |
Atmospheric turbulence at the South Pole and its implications for astronomy |
title_sort |
atmospheric turbulence at the south pole and its implications for astronomy |
publishDate |
2003 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/39137 https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20021814 |
geographic |
South Pole |
geographic_facet |
South Pole |
genre |
South pole |
genre_facet |
South pole |
op_source |
urn:ISSN:0004-6361 Astronomy & Astrophysics, 400, 1163-1172 |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/39137 http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20021814 |
op_rights |
metadata only access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_14cb CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/au/ |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY-NC-ND |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20021814 |
_version_ |
1766201385497395200 |