Site testing campaign for the Large Optical/infrared Telescope of China: overview

Lu, Feng; Hao, Jinxin; Cao, Zihuang; Bai, Jin-Min; Yang, Ji; Zhou, Xu; Yao, Yulong; Hou, Jing; Zhao, Yi; Liu, Yu; Song, Tengfei; Liu, Liyong; Yin, Jian-Tao; Chen, Hualin; Pei, Chong; Esamdin, Ali; Ma, Lihua; Bai, C. H.; Wei, Peng; Xu, Jing; Pu, Guang-Xin; Feng, Guojie; Zhang, Xuan; Liang, Ming; Yisikandee, Abudusaimaitijiang; Shi, Jianrong; Li, Jian; Tian, Yuan; Wang, Zheng; Wang, Xia; Jiang, Xiaojun; Wang, Jianfeng; Jian-feng, Tian; Xue, Yan-Jie; Chen, Jiansheng; Hu, Jingyao; Shen, Zhenxing; Jiang, Yingde

doi:10.1088/1674-4527/20/6/80

Cited by 21 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 20 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This is an advantage over all the sites surveyed for the Thirty Meter Telescope 1 and shown in Table 1 . The median night temperature during winter (December, January and February) is −14.5 °C, which is comparable to the Ngari and Muztagh Ata test sites and much lower than the Daocheng test site 18 . Considering the mean warming trend of about 0.3 °C per decade at Lenghu 21 , the median night temperature in winter will remain below −10 °C towards the end of this century.…”

Section: Air Stabilitymentioning

confidence: 64%

“…An intensive site testing programme was carried out for the Chinese 12-m telescope from 2016 to 2018 at the three sites. The testing results are concluded in an overview paper 18 . The Ngari site was later found to be good for the primordial gravitational wave project 4 .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When there is no cloud in the inner and the outer circles, it is defined as ‘clear’ (or photometric in ref. 18 ); when only the inner circle is clear, it is defined as ‘outer’ (spectroscopic).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A multi-aperture scintillation sensor can provide further information on how the total seeing is composed of different layers in the atmosphere above the site 17 . The same make of DIMM (the one provided by Alcor-System) applied in this study has also been used for many different site-selection campaigns 18 , 19 . Measurements are calculated for an average wavelength of 550 nm and corrected to the zenith (airmass unity).…”

Section: Dimm Seeing Statisticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… *AOT is the total observing time in a night (photometric and spectroscopic, as in ref. 18 ) and cAOT is contiguous AOT in a night. The percentages are the number of nights that fulfil the conditions divided by 365.…”

Section: Extended Data Figures and Tablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Lenghu on the Tibetan Plateau as an astronomical observing site

Deng

Yang

Chen

et al. 2021

Nature

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

On Earth’s surface, there are only a handful of high-quality astronomical sites that meet the requirements for very large next-generation facilities. In the context of scientific opportunities in time-domain astronomy, a good site on the Tibetan Plateau will bridge the longitudinal gap between the known best sites1,2 (all in the Western Hemisphere). The Tibetan Plateau is the highest plateau on Earth, with an average elevation of over 4,000 metres, and thus potentially provides very good opportunities for astronomy and particle astrophysics3–5. Here we report the results of three years of monitoring of testing an area at a local summit on Saishiteng Mountain near Lenghu Town in Qinghai Province. The altitudes of the potential locations are between 4,200 and 4,500 metres. An area of over 100,000 square kilometres surrounding Lenghu Town has a lower altitude of below 3,000 metres, with an extremely arid climate and unusually clear local sky (day and night)6. Of the nights at the site, 70 per cent have clear, photometric conditions, with a median seeing of 0.75 arcseconds. The median night temperature variation is only 2.4 degrees Celsius, indicating very stable local surface air. The precipitable water vapour is lower than 2 millimetres for 55 per cent of the night.

show abstract

Section: Air Stabilitymentioning

confidence: 64%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Dimm Seeing Statisticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Extended Data Figures and Tablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Lenghu on the Tibetan Plateau as an astronomical observing site

Deng

Yang

Chen

et al. 2021

Nature

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Site-testing at Muztagh-ata site. IV. Precipitable Water Vapor

Esamdin

et al. 2022

PASP

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This is the fourth article in a series studying on the site-testing at Muztagh-ata site. The results of the characterization of precipitable water vapor (PWV) in the atmospheric column at Muztagh-ata site are presented. This paper studies the temporal variability of PWV, acquired from remote sensing data sets and validated by limited radiometers data, spanning a period from 2018 to 2019. The clear day PWV annual median values are 2.28 mm and 2.37 mm for 2018 and 2019 respectively. The results show that the driest seasons at Muztagh-ata site are from October to March and there are about 60 ∼ 70 days with daily median PWV less than 2 mm in this period. Atmospheric transmission in mid-infrared bands calculated by AM model confirms the IR observation potential of Muztagh-ata site.

show abstract

Preface: Site testing campaign for the Large Optical/infrared Telescope of China

Hao

2020

Res. Astron. Astrophys.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Large Optical/infrared Telescope of China is a 12 meter diameter ground-based optical/infrared telescope which is proposed to be constructed in the western part of China in favor of its arid climate, and clear, dark nights. A site testing campaign was initiated between November 2016 and March 2019 in order to investigate long term astronomical weather conditions in the western part of China, specifically, at three sites: Ali in Tibet, Daocheng in Sichuan and Muztagh-ata in Xinjiang. This is the first attempt to evaluate long term performances of three candidate sites with uniformly calibrated instruments and data collecting/processing methods for a two-year span in China. In this special issue, we present nine papers that describe the whole site testing campaign, including preparation, data collecting/processing methods, instrument set up at three candidate sites as well as detailed statistics for the measurement results from March 2017 to March 2019.

show abstract

Site testing campaign for the Large Optical/infrared Telescope of China: overview

Cited by 21 publications

References 20 publications

Lenghu on the Tibetan Plateau as an astronomical observing site

Lenghu on the Tibetan Plateau as an astronomical observing site

Site-testing at Muztagh-ata site. IV. Precipitable Water Vapor

Preface: Site testing campaign for the Large Optical/infrared Telescope of China

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About