Solar site testing for the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope

Hill, Frank; Beckers, Jacques; Brandt, Peter; Briggs, John; Brown, Timothy; Brown, W.; Collados, Manuel; Denker, Carsten; Fletcher, Steven; Hegwer, Steven; Horst, T.; Komsa, Mark; Kuhn, Jeff; Lecinski, Alice; Lin, Haosheng; Oncley, Steve; Penn, Matthew; Rimmele, Thomas R.; Socas-Navarro, Hector; Streander, Kim
Bibliographical reference

Ground-based Telescopes. Edited by Oschmann, Jacobus M., Jr. Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 5489, pp. 122-129 (2004).

Advertised on:
10
2004
Number of authors
20
IAC number of authors
1
Citations
10
Refereed citations
7
Description
The location of the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST) is a critical factor in the overall performance of the telescope. We have developed a set of instrumentation to measure daytime seeing, sky brightness, cloud cover, water vapor, dust levels, and weather. The instruments have been located at six sites for periods of one to two years. Here we describe the sites and instrumentation, discuss the data reduction, and present some preliminary results. We demonstrate that it is possible to estimate seeing as a function of height near the ground with an array of scintillometers, and that there is a distinct qualitative difference in daytime seeing between sites with or without a nearby lake.