In this paper, we have used the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)/National Centers for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Reanalysis data base to study, first, a comparison between balloon sounding made at different stations with coinciding model‐based meteorological analysis. The comparison allows the assessment of reliability of the analysis in the studied period and to highlight NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis as an interesting data base for site characterization. Using the same system of Reanalysis, we present, secondly, the first complete characterization of main meteorological parameters at Oukaïmeden Observatory: wind speed, its direction, temperature and pressure. The statistical treatment of data will cover the years between 1990 and 2009. Monthly, seasonal and annual results are analysed. The comprehensive and reliable statistics of tropospheric wind speeds at Oukaïmeden are presented. We found a clear annual periodicity of 200 mbar wind speed. This periodicity could be related to the seasonal dependence of seeing that is affected by the existence of cloud sea during the period around autumn–winter and by high wind speed regimes during spring. The connection of high‐ to low‐altitude tropospheric winds has been explored. We found a high correlation comparable to the ones found at La Silla and La Palma sites. The local parameters in particular topography and stratocumulus formations might affect 700 mbar wind roses. Richardson numbers calculated for each month at Oukaïmeden and La Palma are presented. By analysing the values, we found out that the periods and the regions of development of turbulence in relative terms of stability for the two locations are very similar. In addition, we present the first example of a profile estimated from NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis. We found that this profile presents a tendency very similar to the same averaged profile measured by the balloon‐born radiosondes.
This is the second article of a series devoted to European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) site characterization. In this article we present the main properties of the parameters involved in high angular resolution observations from the data collected in the site testing campaign of the E-ELT during the design study (DS) phase. Observations were made in 2008 and 2009, in the four sites selected to shelter the future E-ELT (characterized under the ELT-DS contract): Aklim mountain in Morocco, Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos (ORM) in Spain, Macón range in Argentina, and Cerro Ventarrones in Chile. The same techniques, instruments, and acquisition procedures were taken on each site. A multiple aperture scintillation sensor (MASS) and a differential image motion monitor (DIMM) were installed at each site. Global statistics of the integrated seeing, the free atmosphere seeing, the boundary layer seeing, and the isoplanatic angle were studied for each site, and the results are presented here. In order to estimate other important parameters, such as the coherence time of the wavefront and the overall parameter "coherence étendue," additional information of vertical profiles of the wind speed was needed. Data were retrieved from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) archive. Ground wind speed was measured by automatic weather stations (AWS). More aspects of the turbulence parameters, such as their seasonal trend, their nightly evolution, and their temporal stability, were also obtained and analyzed.
Both meteorology and optical conditions are crucial for selecting the best site to host extremely large telescopes such as the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) and the European project (E-ELT). For the E-ELT, a year-long meteorological campaign was performed at our two reference sites, the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos (ORM) and Cerro Ventarrones (very close to the VLT site at Paranal), and at other sites also considered as alternatives to the reference sites: Aklim, Macón, and Izaña (Observatorio del Teide; OT). In this article, we present a statistical analysis of the ground meteorological properties recorded at these sites, making use of automatic weather stations (AWSs) equipped with standard meteorological sensors providing the air temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure, wind speed, and wind direction, using standard procedures across all sites. Meteorology offers but one discriminant in the complicated question of where to site such a major facility as the E-ELT (other factors being seeing, local geology, the economics of the logistics, etc.), both for determining the feasibility of telescope and instrumentation design and construction and for determining the useful observing time. However, the final decision of where to locate a major telescope depends in part on all these-and other-considerations and not on any one criterion alone. In summary, for 90% of the nighttime, the wind speed is lower than 18 m s À1 , the telescope operational limit at all the sites except Macón. For this reason, Macón was discarded in the final site selection as, for 25% of the time, the wind speed is greater than 17 m s À1 . The smallest nighttime temperature gradient is at ORM, whereas the lowest mean relative humidity value is reached at the Ventarrones site. Izaña was discarded in the site selection study from the very beginning due to lack of funding to install further site-testing equipement (e.g., Multi-Aperture Scintillation Sensor-Differential Image Motion Monitor (MASS-DIMM)). We investigate the statistical distributions of annual and monthly meteorological conditions for day and night separately. This is the third paper in a series discussing the E-ELT FP6 site characterization project.
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