Bibcode
Giordano, C.; Vernin, J.; Muñoz-Tuñon, C.; Trinquet, H.
Bibliographical reference
Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 9149, id. 91490F 8 pp. (2014).
Advertised on:
8
2014
Citations
1
Refereed citations
0
Description
The quality of astronomical observations is strongly related to the
quality properties of the atmosphere. This parameter is important for
the determination of the observation modes, and for observation program,
the socalled flexible scheduling. We propose to present the
implementation of the WRF model in order to routinely and automatically
forecast the optical conditions. The purpose of our study is to predict
24 hours ahead the optical conditions above an observatory to optimize
the observation time, not only the meteorological conditions at ground
level, but also the vertical distribution of the optical turbulence and
the wind speed, i.e the so-called astronomical seeing. The seeing is
computed using the Trinquet-Vernin model coupled with the vertical
profiles of the wind shear and the potential temperature predicted by
the WRF model. We made a comparison between the WRF output and the in
situ measurements made with the DIMM and an automatic weather station
above the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, Canary Island. Here
we show that the increase of resolution in both the terrain model and 3D
grid yields better forecast when compared with in situ optical and
meteorological observations.