Atmospheric extinction properties above Mauna Kea from the Nearby SuperNova Factory spectro-photometric data set^⋆

¹ Physikalisches Institut Universität Bonn (Bonn), Nussallee 12, 53115 Bonn, Germany
² Université de Lyon, 69622 Lyon, Université Lyon 1, Villeurbanne; CNRS/IN2P3, Institut de Physique Nucléaire de Lyon, France
³ Physics Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
⁴ Laboratoire de Physique Nucléaire et des Hautes Énergies, Université Pierre et Marie Curie Paris 6, Université Paris Diderot Paris 7, CNRS-IN2P3, 4 place Jussieu, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France
⁵ Department of Physics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06250-8121, USA
⁶ Department of Physics, University of California Berkeley, 366 LeConte Hall MC 7300, Berkeley, CA 94720-7300, USA
⁷ Tsinghua Center for Astrophysics, Tsinghua University, 100084 Beijing, PR China
⁸ National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100012 Beijing, PR China
⁹ Computational Cosmology Center, Computational Research Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road MS 50B-4206, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
¹⁰ Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3411, USA
¹¹ Centre de Recherche Astronomique de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, 9 avenue Charles André, 69561 Saint Genis Laval Cedex, France
¹² Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics, The Australian National University, Mt. Stromlo Observatory, Cotter Road, Weston Creek, ACT 2611, Australia
¹³ CPPM, 163 Av. Luminy, 13288 Marseille Cedex 09, France
¹⁴ New York University, Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics, 4 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003, USA

Received: 18 June 2012
Accepted: 2 October 2012

Abstract

We present a new atmospheric extinction curve for Mauna Kea spanning 3200–9700 Å. It is the most comprehensive to date, being based on some 4285 standard star spectra obtained on 478 nights spread over a period of 7 years obtained by the Nearby SuperNova Factory using the SuperNova Integral Field Spectrograph. This mean curve and its dispersion can be used as an aid in calibrating spectroscopic or imaging data from Mauna Kea, and in estimating the calibration uncertainty associated with the use of a mean extinction curve. Our method for decomposing the extinction curve into physical components, and the ability to determine the chromatic portion of the extinction even on cloudy nights, is described and verified over the wide range of conditions sampled by our large dataset. We demonstrate good agreement with atmospheric science data obtain at nearby Mauna Loa Observatory, and with previously published measurements of the extinction above Mauna Kea.