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Observations of optically active turbulence in the planetary boundary layer by sodar at the Concordia astronomical observatory, Dome C, Antarctica
摘要： Aims. An experiment was set up at the Concordia station in Antarctica during the winter-over period in 2012 to determine the behaviour of atmospheric optical turbulence in the lower part of the atmospheric boundary layer. The aim of the experiment was to study the influence of turbulence and weather conditions on the quality of astronomical observations. The Concordia station is characterised by the high quality of astronomical images thanks to very low seeing values. The surface layer in the interior of Antarctica during the winter is very stably stratified with the differences of temperature between the surface and the top of the inversion, which reach 20?35?C. In spite of this strong static stability, considerable thermal optically active turbulence sometimes occurs and extends to several tens of metres above the surface, depending on weather conditions. It is important to know the meteorological characteristics that favour good astronomical observations. Methods. The optical measurements of the seeing made by differential image motion monitors installed at two levels of 8 and 20 m were accompanied by observations of turbulence in the lowest one hundred meters. Turbulence was detected and evaluated using a high-resolution sodar developed specially for this purpose. The statistics of some relevant meteorological variables including the long-wave downward radiation, which indicates cloudiness, were determined. Results. Typical patterns of the vertical and temporal structure of turbulence shown by sodar echograms were identified, analysed, and classified. The statistics of the depth of the surface-based turbulent layer and the turbulent optical factor for different height layers are presented together with the seeing statistics. We analysed the dependence of both seeing and integral turbulence intensity within the first 100 m on temperature and wind speed. Conclusions. Seeing and turbulence intensity in the atmospheric boundary layer appear to be correlated. The best values of the seeing (<1 arcsec) are observed when the sodar shows very low turbulence intensity. The main contribution to the image distortion is due to turbulence generated within the lowest 30?50 m near the surface. The presented statistics of the vertical distribution of the atmospheric optical turbulence can be used to determine the optimal location for astronomical instruments.
关键词： turbulence,site testing,atmospheric effects
更新于2025-09-23 15:23:52
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High resolution mesospheric sodium properties for adaptive optics applications
摘要： Context. The performance of laser guide star adaptive optics (AO) systems for large optical and infrared telescopes is affected by variability of the sodium layer, located at altitudes between 80 and 120 km in the upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere. The abundance and density structure of the atomic sodium found in this region is subject to local and global weather effects, planetary and gravity waves and magnetic storms, and is variable on time scales down to tens of milliseconds, a range relevant to AO. Aims. It is therefore important to characterize the structure and dynamical evolution of the sodium region on small, as well as large spatial and temporal scales. Parameters of particular importance for AO are the mean sodium altitude, sodium layer width and the temporal power spectrum of the centroid altitude. Methods. We have conducted a three-year campaign employing a high-resolution lidar system installed on the 6-m Large Zenith Telescope (LZT) located near Vancouver, Canada. During this period, 112 nights of useful data were obtained. Results. The vertical density profile of atomic sodium shows remarkable structure and variability. Smooth Gaussian-shaped profiles rarely occur. Multiple internal layers are frequently found. These layers often have sharp lower edges, with scale heights of just a few hundred meters, and tend to drift downwards at a typical rate of one kilometer every two to three hours. Individual layers can persist for many hours, but their density and internal structure can be highly variable. Sporadic layers are seen reaching peak densities several times the average, often in just a few minutes. Coherent vertical oscillations are often found, typically extending over tens of kilometers in altitude. Regions of turbulence are evident and Kelvin-Helmholtz instability are sometimes seen. The mean value of the centroid altitude is found to be 90.8 ± 0.1 km. The sodium layer width was determined by computing the altitude range that contains a specified fraction of the returned sodium light. We find a mean value of 13.1 ± 0.3 km for the range containing 95% of the photons, with a maximum width of 21 km. The temporal power spectral density of fluctuations of the centroid altitude is well described by a power law having an index that ranges from ?1.6 to ?2.3 with a mean value of ?1.87 ± 0.02. This is significantly steeper than the value of ?5/3 that would be expected if the dynamics were dominated by Kolmogorov turbulence, indicating that other factors such as gravity waves play an important role. The amplitude of the power spectrum has a mean value of 34+6?5 m2 Hz?1 at a frequency of 1 Hz, but ranges over two orders of magnitude. The annual means of the index and amplitude show a variation that is well beyond the calculated error range. Long-term global weather patterns may be responsible for this effect.
关键词： site testing,atmospheric effects,methods: observational,instrumentation: adaptive optics
更新于2025-09-23 15:23:52
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Spatial and Temporal Stability of Airglow Measured in the Meinel Band Window at 1191.3 nm
摘要： We report on the temporal and spatial fluctuations in the atmospheric brightness in the narrow band between Meinel emission lines at 1191.3 nm using a λ/Δλ = 320 near-infrared instrument. We present the instrument design and implementation, followed by a detailed analysis of data taken over the course of a night from Table Mountain Observatory. At low airmasses, the absolute sky brightness at this wavelength is found to be 5330 ± 30 nW m?2 sr?1, consistent with previous measurements of the inter-band airglow at these wavelengths. This amplitude is larger than simple models of the continuum component of the airglow emission at these wavelengths, confirming that an extra emissive or scattering component is required to explain the observations. We perform a detailed investigation of the noise properties of the data and find no evidence for a noise component associated with temporal instability in the inter-line continuum. This result demonstrates that in several hours of ～100 s integrations the noise performance of the instrument does not appear to significantly degrade from expectations, giving a proof of concept that near-infrared line intensity mapping may be feasible from ground-based sites.
关键词： techniques: imaging spectroscopy,site testing,atmospheric effects
更新于2025-09-23 15:23:52
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Four winters of photometry with ASTEP South at Dome C, Antarctica
摘要： Context. Dome C in Antarctica is a promising site for photometric observations thanks to the continuous night during the Antarctic winter and favorable weather conditions. Aims. We developed instruments to assess the quality of this site for photometry in the visible and to detect and characterize variable objects through the Antarctic Search for Transiting ExoPlanets (ASTEP) project. Methods. Here, we present the full analysis of four winters of data collected with ASTEP South, a 10 cm refractor pointing continuously toward the celestial south pole. We improved the instrument over the years and developed specific data reduction methods. Results. We achieved nearly continuous observations over the winters. We measure an average sky background of 20 mag arcsec?2 in the 579–642 nm bandpass. We built the lightcurves of 6000 stars and developed a model to infer the photometric quality of Dome C from the lightcurves themselves. The weather is photometric 67.1 ± 4.2% of the time and veiled 21.8 ± 2.0% of the time. The remaining time corresponds to poor quality data or winter storms. We analyzed the lightcurves of σ Oct and HD 184465 and find that the amplitude of their main frequency varies by a factor of 3.5 and 6.7 over the four years, respectively. We also identify 34 new variable stars and eight new eclipsing binaries with periods ranging from 0.17 to 81 days. Conclusion. The phase coverage that we achieved with ASTEP South is exceptional for a ground-based instrument and the data quality enables the detection and study of variable objects. These results demonstrate the high quality of Dome C for photometry in the visible and for time series observations in general.
关键词： site testing,stars: variables: delta Scuti,methods: observational,binaries: eclipsing,methods: data analysis,techniques: photometric
更新于2025-09-19 17:15:36
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Daytime optical turbulence and wind speed distributions at the Baikal Astrophysical Observatory
摘要： Atmospheric turbulence limits the angular resolution of ground-based optical telescopes. The daytime turbulence conditions for solar observations are stronger and more complicated than the turbulence observed at night. The Baikal Astrophysical Observatory is the site of the 1-m Large Solar Vacuum Telescope (LSVT) located near Lake Baikal (East Siberia, Russia), which is the largest freshwater lake in the world. The region hosts unique weather regimes and natural phenomena, including local winds and giant ice rings. Because the LSVT has ongoing and planned programmes in adaptive optics (AO), statistical knowledge of atmospheric turbulence and wind speed distributions is essential for designing and optimizing AO systems. We present the first seasonal study of the vertical distribution of wind speed and daytime optical turbulence conditions at the Baikal Astrophysical Observatory. Site measurements of the daytime Fried parameter were collected using the Shack–Hartmann wavefront sensor in the LSVT AO system. Reanalysis data from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) and the National Centers for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) were used to characterize the wind speed distribution. The results demonstrate seasonal variation in both solar seeing and wind speed profile. The strongest wind speed was detected in winter and in November, while the weakest wind speed occurred during summer. The strongest daytime turbulence conditions were observed in the winter. The best solar seeing β0 ≈ 1 arcsec was detected in the summer.
关键词： site testing,atmospheric effects,instrumentation: adaptive optics
更新于2025-09-10 09:29:36