Issue |
A&A
Volume 588, April 2016
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A32 | |
Number of page(s) | 7 | |
Section | Astronomical instrumentation | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201527973 | |
Published online | 14 March 2016 |
Atmospheric conditions at Cerro Armazones derived from astronomical data⋆,⋆⋆
1
Instituto de Astronomía, Universidad Católica del Norte,
Av. Angamos, 0610
Antofagasta,
Chile
e-mail: mlakicevic@ucn.cl; skimeswenger@ucn.cl
2
Institute for Astro- and Particle Physics, University of
Innsbruck, Technikerstr.
258, 6020
Innsbruck,
Austria
3
University of Vienna, Department of Astrophysics,
Türkenschanzstr. 17 (Sternwarte),
1170
Vienna,
Austria
4
European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, 85748
Garching bei München,
Germany
Received: 15 December 2015
Accepted: 30 January 2016
Aims. We studied the precipitable water vapour (PWV) content near Cerro Armazones and discuss the potential use of our technique of modelling the telluric absorbtion lines for the investigation of other molecular layers. The site is designated for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) and the nearby planned site for the Čerenkov Telescope Array (CTA).
Methods. Spectroscopic data from the Bochum Echelle Spectroscopic Observer (BESO) instrument were investigated by using a line-by-line radiative transfer model (LBLRTM) for the Earth’s atmosphere with the telluric absorption correction tool molecfit. All observations from the archive in the period from December 2008 to the end of 2014 were investigated. The dataset completely covers the El Niño event registered in the period 2009–2010. Models of the 3D Global Data Assimilation System (GDAS) were used for further comparison. Moreover, we present a direct comparison for those days for which data from a similar study with VLT/X-Shooter and microwave radiometer LHATPRO at Cerro Paranal are available.
Results. This analysis shows that the site has systematically lower PWV values, even after accounting for the decrease in PWV expected from the higher altitude of the site with respect to Cerro Paranal, using the average atmosphere found with radiosondes. We found that GDAS data are not a suitable basis for predicting local atmospheric conditions – they usually systematically overestimate the PWV values. The large sample furthermore enabled us to characterize the site with respect to symmetry across the sky and variation with the years and within the seasons. This technique of studying the atmospheric conditions is shown to be a promising step into a possible monitoring equipment for the CTA.
Key words: site testing / instrumentation: spectrographs / techniques: spectroscopic / methods: observational / atmospheric effects / methods: numerical
Based on archival observations collected at the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere, Chile and of the Cerro Armazones Observatory facilities of the Ruhr Universität Bochum.
Full Table 1 is only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/588/A32
© ESO, 2016
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