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An Analysis of Surface Wind Speeds at Dome C, Antarctica

An Analysis of Surface Wind Speeds at Dome C, Antarctica. C. Meyer and J.W.V. Storey School of Physics/Univ. of New South Wales Presented on their behalf by Shelley L. Knuth Antarctic Meteorological Research Center. Outline. Introduction/Purpose Dome C and Astronomy Results Conclusion.

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An Analysis of Surface Wind Speeds at Dome C, Antarctica

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  1. An Analysis of Surface Wind Speeds at Dome C, Antarctica C. Meyer and J.W.V. Storey School of Physics/Univ. of New South Wales Presented on their behalf by Shelley L. Knuth Antarctic Meteorological Research Center An Analysis of Surface Wind Speeds at Dome C, Antarctica

  2. Outline • Introduction/Purpose • Dome C and Astronomy • Results • Conclusion An Analysis of Surface Wind Speeds at Dome C, Antarctica

  3. Introduction/Purpose • AWS/AMRC project assists many scientists in other fields • Provided twenty years worth of data from Dome C An Analysis of Surface Wind Speeds at Dome C, Antarctica

  4. Introduction (Cont.) • Wind speeds important to deployment of telescopes • Telescopes have to survive – higher winds cause more stress on telescopes, especially the ELT’s • Wind loads must not deform mirrors by more than a few tens of nm. – moves less with lower wind speeds • High wind speeds create turbulent ground layer and reduce telescope resolution. • Low wind speeds increase time available to focus on a Guide Star which allows for fainter stars to be used An Analysis of Surface Wind Speeds at Dome C, Antarctica

  5. Introduction (ctd.) • Longer exposure allows you to "see" farther out into space without having the view distorted by turbulence (sort of like the heat shimmer that comes off the pavement on a hot day). • High wind speeds result in higher dust or ice crystal levels, which reduce the operational abilities of the telescope • Ground layer only turbulence in the atmosphere so allows unprecedented image quality over a wide field An Analysis of Surface Wind Speeds at Dome C, Antarctica

  6. Dome C and Astronomy • Lat/Lon: (ca. 1980) 74.5S, 123.00E, 3280m and (ca. 1995) 75.12S, 123.37E, 3250m • Exceptionally low wind speeds because high on plateau and are just starting their flow down the mountains • Thin boundary layer • Excellent place for an astronomical observatory An Analysis of Surface Wind Speeds at Dome C, Antarctica

  7. Dr. Anna Moore of the Anglo-Australian Observatory An Analysis of Surface Wind Speeds at Dome C, Antarctica

  8. An Analysis of Surface Wind Speeds at Dome C, Antarctica

  9. Results Mean monthly wind speed at Dome C and Dome C II from the beginning of 1984 to the end of 2003. An Analysis of Surface Wind Speeds at Dome C, Antarctica

  10. Figure 2. Wind rose, showing the probability that the wind will be of a particular speed and in a particular direction, for Dome C and Dome C II combined, for the same period as in Figure 1. An Analysis of Surface Wind Speeds at Dome C, Antarctica

  11. Table 1. Mean wind speeds at Dome C and at other astronomical sites for which long-term data exist. An Analysis of Surface Wind Speeds at Dome C, Antarctica

  12. Figure 4. Probability histogram for 1990 showing all data (top panel), winter months (middle panel), and astronomical darkness (lower panel). Also shown is the cumulative probability. An Analysis of Surface Wind Speeds at Dome C, Antarctica

  13. Figure 7. Probability histogram for 2003 showing all data (top panel), winter months (middle panel), and astronomical darkness (lower panel). Also shown is the cumulative probability. An Analysis of Surface Wind Speeds at Dome C, Antarctica

  14. Conclusions • Dome C winds are very low • Winds many times are even null • Incredible advantage for telescope designers • Good place for the new Extremely Large Telescope and proposed Antarctic Planet Interferometer An Analysis of Surface Wind Speeds at Dome C, Antarctica

  15. Acknowledgments • Linda Keller – AWS Data • Peter Gillingham, Panayiotis Tzanavaris, and Jon Everett at UNSW • Support from Australian Research Council An Analysis of Surface Wind Speeds at Dome C, Antarctica

  16. Figure 3. Probability histogram for 1984 showing all data (top panel), winter months (middle panel), and astronomical darkness (lower panel). Also shown is the cumulative probability. An Analysis of Surface Wind Speeds at Dome C, Antarctica

  17. Figure 5. Probability histogram for 1996 showing all data (top panel), winter months (middle panel), and astronomical darkness (lower panel). Also shown is the cumulative probability. An Analysis of Surface Wind Speeds at Dome C, Antarctica

  18. Figure 6. Probability histogram for 2002 showing all data (top panel), winter months (middle panel), and astronomical darkness (lower panel). Also shown is the cumulative probability. An Analysis of Surface Wind Speeds at Dome C, Antarctica

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