Prospects for unprecedented seeing in Antarctica

Extract

Seeing degradation is almost entirely the result of thermal inhomogeneity in the atmosphere and at most observatory sites, a major contributor to this inhomogeneity is the diurnal variation in temperature. In addition to its effects on the free atmosphere, the daily temperature variation leads to local seeing degradation, especially with large telescopes, because the temperatures of massive components tend to lag behind the temperature of the surrounding air and give rise to convective disturbances.