Site selection for the European Southern Observatory's future very large telescope

Details Site selection for the European Southern Observatory's future very large telescope Site selection for the European Southern Observatory's future very large telescope

Apr 2003

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003eaeja.....1006g&link_type=abstract

EGS - AGU - EUG Joint Assembly, Abstracts from the meeting held in Nice, France, 6 - 11 April 2003, abstract #1006

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Astronomical research at present requires that a telescope with an aperture diameter of between 50 and 100 metres be constructed within the next 10 years or so. Selection of an ideal site for this telescope is dependent on many parameters, especially local climatological and meteorological variables. A GIS-based interface and database is currently being built for this task at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. The interface will combine a fully comprehensive climatological database (e.g. ECWMF and NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis data) complete with GIS tools (e.g. IDRISI software and PHP web server language) in order to aid the decision making process. The interaction between air-flow and topography is also of critical importance, as unfavourable air-flow can signifîcantly perturb astronomical observations (e.g. Beniston et al, 2002). This problem is addressed by the inclusion of an Upwind Roughness Index (URI), which is based on a combination of the upwind topography and wind frequency for a particular direction. The index can determine preferential sites for a new telescope, such as isolated mountain summits, or a mountain ridge downwind of a large ocean. It is envisaged that the final GIS interface and database be accessible on the internet (world wide web). References M. Beniston, P. Casals, M. Sarazin, Perturbations to astronomical observations at the European Southern Observatory's very large telescope site in Paranal, Chile: analyses of climatological causes, Theor. Appl. Climatol. 73 (2002) 3-4, 133-150

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