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Atmosphere
Special Issues
The Impacts of Climate on Astronomical Observations
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The Impacts of Climate on Astronomical Observations

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Climatology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 February 2024) | Viewed by 3258

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Marc S. Sarazin

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Retired, Formerly with System Engineering Department, European Southern Observatory, 85748 Garching bei München, Germany
Interests: climate variability

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Climate change is affecting and will increasingly affect astronomical observations. For ground-based astronomical facilities with a typical lifetime of at least 30 years, it is essential to be aware of future climate evolution to optimize observation strategies and instrumental upgrades. New facilities have been introduced and others are in the planning phase. Further investigation is needed to better understand the underlying mechanisms of change and to assess the severity of the impact.

What are the underlying mechanisms of change? Which part of the atmosphere is directly concerned? Most observatories provide in situ measurements of local weather, and several operate dedicated instruments directly monitoring atmospheric turbulence parameters, which can be used to validate the output of the highest resolution global climate models available. The horizontal resolution of the meteorological models is constantly improving, allowing realistic forecasts of the local flow even in such irregular high-altitude terrain where most large facilities are located. Moreover, the vertical mesh of the models in the free atmosphere is now fine enough to attempt modeling the fine structures of the thermal turbulence and, consequently, its dependency on climate evolution.

How severe is climate change for the scientific throughput of a ground-based observatory? Which observing mode is directly impacted by the long-term change in a given meteorological parameter? Modern ground-based astronomy produces a wealth of scientific data progressively made publicly available, which can be used for instrument performance analysis and cross-compared to meteorological trends.

Dr. Marc S. Sarazin
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Atmosphere is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • site testing
  • telescopes
  • atmospheric effects
  • climate change
  • data mining

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

Jump to: Review, Other

18 pages, 436 KiB  
Article
On the Impact of ENSO Cycles and Climate Change on Telescope Sites in Northern Chile
by Julia Victoria Seidel, Angel Otarola and Valentina Théron
Atmosphere 2023, 14(10), 1511; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos14101511 - 29 Sep 2023
Viewed by 893
Abstract
The Atacama desert stands as the most arid, non-polar, region on Earth and has accommodated a considerable portion of the world’s ground-based astronomical observatories for an extended period. The comprehension of factors important for observational conditions in this region, and the potential alterations [...] Read more.
The Atacama desert stands as the most arid, non-polar, region on Earth and has accommodated a considerable portion of the world’s ground-based astronomical observatories for an extended period. The comprehension of factors important for observational conditions in this region, and the potential alterations induced by the escalating impact of climate change, are, therefore, of the utmost significance. In this study, we conduct an analysis of the surface-level air temperature, water vapour density, and astronomical seeing at the European Southern Observatory (commonly known by its acronym, ESO) telescope sites in northern Chile. Our findings reveal a discernible rise in temperature across all sites during the last decade. Moreover, we establish a correlation between the air temperature and water vapour density with the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phases, wherein, the warm anomaly known as El Niño (EN) corresponds to drier observing conditions, coupled with higher maximum daily temperatures favouring more challenging near-infrared observations. The outcomes of this investigation have potential implications for the enhancement of the long-term scheduling of observations at telescope sites in northern Chile, thereby aiding in better planning and allocation of resources for the astronomy community. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Impacts of Climate on Astronomical Observations)
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Review

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17 pages, 358 KiB  
Review
The Elusive Nature of “Seeing”
by Andrei Tokovinin
Atmosphere 2023, 14(11), 1694; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos14111694 - 17 Nov 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1111
Abstract
Atmospheric image blur, “seeing”, is one of the key parameters that influences the selection of observatory sites and the performance of ground-based telescopes. In this review, the common definition of seeing based on the Kolmogorov turbulence model is recalled. The ability of this [...] Read more.
Atmospheric image blur, “seeing”, is one of the key parameters that influences the selection of observatory sites and the performance of ground-based telescopes. In this review, the common definition of seeing based on the Kolmogorov turbulence model is recalled. The ability of this model to represent real, non-stationary fluctuations of the air refractive index is discussed. Even in principle, seeing (a model parameter) cannot be measured with arbitrary accuracy; consequently, describing atmospheric blur by a single number, seeing, is a crude approximation. The operating principles of current seeing monitors are outlined. They measure optical effects caused by turbulence, sampling certain regions of spatial and temporal spectrum of atmosphreic optical disturbances, and interpret their statistics in the framework of the standard model. Biases of seeing monitors (measurement noise, propagation, finite exposure time, optical defects, wind shake, etc.) should be quantified and corrected using simulations, while instrument comparison campaigns serve as a check. The elusive nature of seeing follows from its uniqueness (a given measurement cannot be repeated or checked later), its non-stationarity (dependence on time, location, and viewing direction), a substantial role of the highly variable surface layer, and a potential bias caused by the air flow in the immediate vicinity of the seeing monitors. The results of seeing measurements are outside the scope of this review. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Impacts of Climate on Astronomical Observations)
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Other

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10 pages, 3047 KiB  
Brief Report
Surface Layer Turbulence at the Maidanak Observatory
by Azimjon Azimov, Yusufjon Tillayev, Shuhrat Ehgamberdiev, Yodgor Rajabov, Sabit Ilyasov and Marc Sarazin
Atmosphere 2023, 14(12), 1779; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos14121779 - 1 Dec 2023
Viewed by 671
Abstract
Results of night-time surface layer turbulence measurements using ESO LuSci at the Maidanak observatory are presented. Turbulence in the surface layer was evaluated at the Maidanak observatory using LuSci during the period of 2021–2022. The overall median DIMM-seeing was 0.74 arcseconds during this [...] Read more.
Results of night-time surface layer turbulence measurements using ESO LuSci at the Maidanak observatory are presented. Turbulence in the surface layer was evaluated at the Maidanak observatory using LuSci during the period of 2021–2022. The overall median DIMM-seeing was 0.74 arcseconds during this period. It was determined that the seeing in the surface layer up to 256 m equals 0.44 arcseconds. This corresponds to 42% of the contribution to the integral seeing in the entire atmosphere. A telescope installed at 6 m above the ground will be affected by 33% of the integral turbulence and about 79% of the surface layer one. Taking into account that the free atmosphere contributes around 30%, we conclude that around 30% of the overall seeing is contributed by the boundary layer above the Maidanak observatory. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Impacts of Climate on Astronomical Observations)
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