Climate-based site selection for a very large telescope using GIS techniques

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

doi:10.1017/S1350482705001520

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Journal article

Climate-based site selection for a very large telescope using GIS techniques

Graham, Edward Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Sarazin, Marc S. European Southern Observatory, Munich, Germany
Beniston, Martin Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Collet, Claude Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Hayoz, Michael Department of Informatics, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Neun, Moritz Department of Informatics, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Casals, Paula Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, Switzerland

12.04.2005

Published in:

Meteorological Applications. - 2005, vol. 12, p. 77

English Astronomical research at present requires that a telescope with an aperture diameter of between 50 and 100 metres be constructed within the next 10 years or so. This new generation of telescopes will be called OWL (Overwhelmingly Large), and it represents one order of magnitude increase in size over today's telescopes. Selection of an ideal site for this giant telescope is dependent on many climatological, meteorological and geomorphological parameters (Grenon 1990). Among these are cloud cover, atmospheric humidity, aerosol content, airflow direction and strength, air temperature, topography, and seismicity. Even relatively minor changes in weather patterns can have a significant effect on seeing conditions (Beniston et al. 2002).

Faculty

Faculté des sciences et de médecine

Department

Département de Géosciences

Language