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Climate-based site selection for a Very Large Telescope using GIS techniques

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2005

Edward Graham ,
Marc Sarazin ,
Martin Beniston ,
Claude Collet ,
Michael Hayoz ,
Moritz Neun  and
Paula Casals
Edward Graham
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Marc Sarazin
Affiliation:
European Southern Observatory, Munich, Germany
Martin Beniston
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Claude Collet
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Michael Hayoz
Affiliation:
Department of Informatics, University of Fribourg, Switzerland Email: [email protected]
Moritz Neun
Affiliation:
Department of Informatics, University of Fribourg, Switzerland Email: [email protected]
Paula Casals
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
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Extract

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. This new generation of telescopes will be called OWL (Overwhelmingly Large), and it represents one order of magnitude increase in size over today's telescopes. Selection of an ideal site for this giant telescope is dependent on many climatological, meteorological and geomorphological parameters (Grenon 1990). Among these are cloud cover, atmospheric humidity, aerosol content, airflow direction and strength, air temperature, topography, and seismicity. Even relatively minor changes in weather patterns can have a significant effect on seeing conditions (Beniston et al. 2002).

Type
Research Article
Information
Meteorological Applications , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , March 2005 , pp. 77 - 81
Copyright
© 2005 Royal Meteorological Society

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