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F. Hill, J. Briggs, R. Radick, S. Hegwer (NSO)
The performance of the ATST will be strongly influenced by the atmospheric conditions of the site. In order to select the site, we are testing six candidate locations: Big Bear Solar Observatory, California; Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain; Mees Solar Observatory, Haleakala, Hawaii; NSO/Sacramento Peak Observatory, New Mexico; Observatorio Astronómico Nacional, San Pedro Martir, Baja California, Mexico; and Panguitch Lake, Utah. The statistics of seeing, scattering, and cloud cover are being measured with a suite of instruments including a solar differential image motion monitor (S-DIMM), an array of six scintillometers, a small externally occulted coronagraph, a water vapor meter, a dust monitor, and a weather station. At the time of the meeting, we expect to have four operational sites, and we will present a first look at the relationship bewteen solar observing conditions and site geography, topology, and meteorology.
The National Solar Observatory is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation, for the benefit of the astronomical community.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 34
© 2002. The American Astronomical Soceity.