An Analysis of the Fragmentation of Observing Time At the Muztagh-Ata Site

Cloud cover plays a pivotal role in assessing observational conditions for astronomical site-testing.Except for the fraction of observing time,its fragmentation also wields a significant influence on the quality of nighttime sky clarity.In this article,we introduce the functionΓ∈[0,1],designed to comprehensively capture both the fraction of available observing time and its continuity.Leveraging in situ measurement data gathered at the Muztagh-Ata site between 2017 and 2021,we showcase the effectiveness of our approach.The statistical result illustrates that the Muztagh-Ata site affords approximately 122 nights that were absolutely clear and 205 very good nights annually,corresponding toΓ≥0.9 andΓ≥0.36 respectively.

Site-testing at the Muztagh-ata Site V.Nighttime Cloud Amount during the Last Five Years

The clarity of nights is the major factor that should be carefully considered for optical/infrared astronomical observatories in site-testing campaigns.Cloud coverage is directly related to the amount of time available for scientific observations at observatories.In this article,we report on the results of detailed night-time cloud statistics and continuous observing time derived from ground-based all-sky cameras(ASCs)at the Muztagh-ata site from 2017to 2021.Results obtained from acquisition data show that the proportion of the annual observing time at the Muztagh-ata site is 65%,and the best period with the least cloud coverage and longer continuous observing time is from September to February.We made a comparison of the monthly mean observing nights obtained from our ASC and CLARA data set,and results show that the discrepancy between them may depend on the cloud top heights.On average,this site can provide 175 clear nights and 169 nights with at least 4 hr of continuous observing time per year.

Long-term analysis of clear nights using satellite data considering astronomical sites in western China

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.