A large ground-based optical/infrared telescope is being planned for a world-class astronomical site in China.The cloud-free night percentage is the primary meteorological consideration for evaluating candidate sites....A large ground-based optical/infrared telescope is being planned for a world-class astronomical site in China.The cloud-free night percentage is the primary meteorological consideration for evaluating candidate sites.The data from GMS and NOAA satellites and the MODIS instrument were utilized in this research,covering the period from 1996 to 2015.Our data analysis benefits from overlapping results from different independent teams as well as a uniform analysis of selected sites using GMS+NOAA data.Although significant ground-based monitoring is needed to validate these findings,we identify three different geographical regions with a high percentage of cloud-free conditions(~83%on average),which is slightly lower than at Mauna Kea and Cerro Armazones(~85%on average)and were chosen for the large international projects TMT and ELT respectively.Our study finds evidence that cloud distributions and the seasonal changes affected by the prevailing westerly winds and summer monsoons reduce the cloud cover in areas influenced by the westerlies.This is consistent with the expectations from climate change models and is suggestive that most of the identified sites will have reduced cloud cover in the future.展开更多
A model which includes the relativistic effect is derived that can be applied to space very long baseline interferometry (SVLBI) while taking observations of sources at infinite distance. In SVLBI, where one station...A model which includes the relativistic effect is derived that can be applied to space very long baseline interferometry (SVLBI) while taking observations of sources at infinite distance. In SVLBI, where one station is on a spacecraft, the length of the baseline and the orbiting station's maximum speed in an elliptical orbit around the Earth is much larger than the ground-based VLBI, which leads to a larger delay and higher delay rate. The delay models inside VLBI correlators are usually expressed as fifth-order polynomials during a limited time interval, which are evaluated by firmware in the correlator and track delays in the interferometer over the limited time interval. The higher SVLBI delay rate requires more accurate polynomial fitting and evaluation, as well as more frequent model updates.展开更多
Quasars are essential for astrometry in the sense that they are spatially stationary because of their large distance from the Sun. The European Space Agency(ESA) astrometric satellite Gaia is scanning the whole sky wi...Quasars are essential for astrometry in the sense that they are spatially stationary because of their large distance from the Sun. The European Space Agency(ESA) astrometric satellite Gaia is scanning the whole sky with unprecedented accuracy up to the level of a few μas. However, Gaia's two-fields-ofview-observation strategy may introduce a parallax bias in the Gaia catalog. Since it presents no significant parallax, a quasar is the perfect natural object to detect such bias. More importantly, quasars can be used to construct a celestial reference frame in the optical wavelengths for the Gaia mission. In this paper, we compile a list of known quasars that have been published in the literatures. The final compilation(designated as Known Quasars Catalog for Gaia mission, KQCG) contains 1 842 076 objects, among which797 632 objects are found in Gaia DR1 after cross-identifications. Redshift, color information and position uncertainties of the objects are also provided if available. This catalog will be very useful for the Gaia mission.展开更多
Based on previous site testing and satellite cloud data,Ali,Daocheng and Muztagh-ata have been selected as candidate sites for the Large Optical/Infrared Telescope(LOT) in China.We present the data collection,processi...Based on previous site testing and satellite cloud data,Ali,Daocheng and Muztagh-ata have been selected as candidate sites for the Large Optical/Infrared Telescope(LOT) in China.We present the data collection,processing,management and quality analysis for our site testing based on using similar hardware.We analyze meteorological data,seeing,background light,cloud and precipitable water vapor data from 2017 March 10 to 2019 March 10.We also investigated the relative usefulness of our all-sky camera data in comparison to that from the meteorological TERRA satellite data based on a night-by-night comparison of the correlation and consistency between them.We find a 6% discrepancy arising from a wide range of factors.展开更多
基金partly supported by the Operation,Maintenance and Upgrading Fund for Astronomical Telescopes and Facility Instruments,budgeted from the Ministry of Finance of China(MOF)and administered by the Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS)supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.11573054,11703065,11603044 and 11873081)+1 种基金support from a CAS PIFIUK STFC grant ST/R006598/1。
文摘A large ground-based optical/infrared telescope is being planned for a world-class astronomical site in China.The cloud-free night percentage is the primary meteorological consideration for evaluating candidate sites.The data from GMS and NOAA satellites and the MODIS instrument were utilized in this research,covering the period from 1996 to 2015.Our data analysis benefits from overlapping results from different independent teams as well as a uniform analysis of selected sites using GMS+NOAA data.Although significant ground-based monitoring is needed to validate these findings,we identify three different geographical regions with a high percentage of cloud-free conditions(~83%on average),which is slightly lower than at Mauna Kea and Cerro Armazones(~85%on average)and were chosen for the large international projects TMT and ELT respectively.Our study finds evidence that cloud distributions and the seasonal changes affected by the prevailing westerly winds and summer monsoons reduce the cloud cover in areas influenced by the westerlies.This is consistent with the expectations from climate change models and is suggestive that most of the identified sites will have reduced cloud cover in the future.
文摘A model which includes the relativistic effect is derived that can be applied to space very long baseline interferometry (SVLBI) while taking observations of sources at infinite distance. In SVLBI, where one station is on a spacecraft, the length of the baseline and the orbiting station's maximum speed in an elliptical orbit around the Earth is much larger than the ground-based VLBI, which leads to a larger delay and higher delay rate. The delay models inside VLBI correlators are usually expressed as fifth-order polynomials during a limited time interval, which are evaluated by firmware in the correlator and track delays in the interferometer over the limited time interval. The higher SVLBI delay rate requires more accurate polynomial fitting and evaluation, as well as more frequent model updates.
基金makes use of data products from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, which is a joint project of the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administrationprovided by the National Development and Reform Commissionsupported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11703065 and 11573054)
文摘Quasars are essential for astrometry in the sense that they are spatially stationary because of their large distance from the Sun. The European Space Agency(ESA) astrometric satellite Gaia is scanning the whole sky with unprecedented accuracy up to the level of a few μas. However, Gaia's two-fields-ofview-observation strategy may introduce a parallax bias in the Gaia catalog. Since it presents no significant parallax, a quasar is the perfect natural object to detect such bias. More importantly, quasars can be used to construct a celestial reference frame in the optical wavelengths for the Gaia mission. In this paper, we compile a list of known quasars that have been published in the literatures. The final compilation(designated as Known Quasars Catalog for Gaia mission, KQCG) contains 1 842 076 objects, among which797 632 objects are found in Gaia DR1 after cross-identifications. Redshift, color information and position uncertainties of the objects are also provided if available. This catalog will be very useful for the Gaia mission.
基金partly supported by the Operation,Maintenance and Upgrading Fund for Astronomical Telescopes and Facility Instruments,budgeted from the Ministry of Finance of China (MOF) and administered by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)supported by the National NaturalScience Foundation of China (Grant Nos.11573054,11703065,11603044 and 11873081)HRAJ acknowledges support from a CAS PIFI and UK STFC grant ST/R006598/1。
文摘Based on previous site testing and satellite cloud data,Ali,Daocheng and Muztagh-ata have been selected as candidate sites for the Large Optical/Infrared Telescope(LOT) in China.We present the data collection,processing,management and quality analysis for our site testing based on using similar hardware.We analyze meteorological data,seeing,background light,cloud and precipitable water vapor data from 2017 March 10 to 2019 March 10.We also investigated the relative usefulness of our all-sky camera data in comparison to that from the meteorological TERRA satellite data based on a night-by-night comparison of the correlation and consistency between them.We find a 6% discrepancy arising from a wide range of factors.