Related papers: Study of the atmospheric conditions at Cerro Armaz…
The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) and the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) site testing teams have recently finalized their site testing studies. Since atmospheric water vapor is the dominant source of absorption and increased…
In the search for small exoplanets orbiting cool stars whose spectral energy distributions peak in the near infrared, the strong absorption of radiation in this region due to water vapour in the atmosphere is a particularly adverse effect…
Water vapour in the atmosphere is the main source of the atmospheric opacity in the infrared and sub-millimetric regimes and its value plays a critical role in observations done with instruments working at these wavelengths on ground-based…
In this paper we study the abilities of an atmospherical mesoscale model in forecasting the classical atmospherical parameters relevant for astronomical applications at the surface layer (wind speed, wind direction, temperature, relative…
The Earth's atmosphere affects ground-based astronomical observations. Scattering, absorption, and radiation processes deteriorate the signal-to-noise ratio of the data received. For scheduling astronomical observations it is, therefore,…
Optical turbulence affects significantly the quality of ground-based astronomical observations. An accurate and reliable forecast of optical turbulence can help to optimise the scheduling of the science observations and to improve both the…
Precipitable water vapour (PWV) strongly affects the quality of data obtained from millimetre- and submillimetre-wave astronomical observations, such as those for cosmic microwave background measurements. Some of these observatories have…
A Low Humidity and Temperature Profiling (LHATPRO) microwave radiometer, manufactured by Radiometer Physics GmbH (RPG), is used to monitor sky conditions over ESO's Paranal observatory in support of VLT science operations. The unit measures…
In the context of the MOSE project, in this contribution we present a detailed analysis of the Meso-NH mesoscale model performances and their dependency on the model and orography horizontal resolutions in proximity of the ground. The…
We present very encouraging preliminary results obtained in the context of the MOSE project, an on-going study aiming at investigating the feasibility of the forecast of the optical turbulence and meteorological parameters (in the free…
We set out to evaluate the potential of the Colombian Andes for millimeter-wave astronomical observations. Previous studies for astronomical site testing in this region have suggested that nighttime humidity and cloud cover conditions make…
A Low Humidity and Temperature Profiling (LHATPRO) microwave radiometer, manufactured by Radiometer Physics GmbH (RPG), is used to monitor sky conditions over ESO's Paranal observatory in support of VLT science operations. In addition to…
The High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) site and the Gamsberg Mountain have been identified as potential sites for the Africa Millimetre Telescope (AMT). The AMT is poised to observe at millimetre and possibly at submillimetre…
Climate change is affecting and will increasingly affect astronomical observations. In this paper, we investigated the role some key weather parameters play in the quality of astronomical observations, and analysed their long-term trends…
In this contribution we present the most relevant results obtained in the context of a feasibility study (MOSE) undertaken for ESO. The principal aim of the project was to quantify the performances of a mesoscale model (Astro-Meso-NH code)…
We utilise ground-based, balloon-borne and satellite climatology data to reconstruct site and season-dependent vertical profiles of precipitable water vapour (PWV). We use these profiles to solve radiative transfer through the atmosphere,…
Precipitable water vapor (PWV) is an important climate parameter indicative of available moisture in the atmosphere, it is also an important greenhouse gas. Observations of precipitable water vapor in sub-Sahel West Africa are almost…
We report precipitable water vapor (PWV) measurements made at Las Campanas Observatory using optical spectra of H2O lines obtained with the Magellan echelle spectrograph, and calculated using a robust technique that is accurate to 5-10%.…
Modeling molecular absorption by Earth's atmosphere is important for a wide range of astronomical observations, including broadband NIR photometry and high-resolution NIR spectroscopy. Using a line-by-line radiative transfer approach, we…
This article aims at proving the feasibility of the forecast of all the most relevant classical atmospherical parameters for astronomical applications (wind speed and direction, temperature) above the ESO ground-base site of Cerro Paranal…