Studying the Relationship Between the Average Velocity of the Turbulence and High Altitude Winds at the Teide Observatory

García-Lorenzo, B.; Del Giorgio-Castiglione, C.; Eff-Darwich, A.; Fuensalida, J. J.
Referencia bibliográfica

Optical Turbulence: Astronomy Meets Meteorology, Proceedings of the Astronomy Meets Meteorology, Proceedings of the Optical Turbulence Characterization for Astronomical Applications Sardinia, Italy, 15 - 18 September 2008, edited by Elena Masciadri (Instituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Italy) & Marc Sarazin (European Southern Observatory, Germany), pp. 358-365 (2010).

Fecha de publicación:
9
2009
Número de autores
4
Número de autores del IAC
2
Número de citas
0
Número de citas referidas
0
Descripción
The requirements for excellent image quality of current large and future very large telescopes demand a proper knowledge of atmospheric turbulence. Thus several projects are already pursuing this aim. The precise characterization of the turbulence above a particular site requires long-term monitoring. In this sense, due to the lack of long-term information on turbulence, high-altitude winds (in particular winds at the 200-mbar pressure level, V200) have been proposed (Sarazin & Tokovinin 2002,1 S&T02 hereafter) as a parameter for estimating the total turbulence at a particular site, because records of this parameter exist from several sources. This choice is based on the idea that the greatest source for turbulence generation is related to the highest peak in the vertical wind profile, which is located at the 200-mbar pressure level globally. Moreover, S&T02 found a good correlation between the average velocity of the turbulence, V0, and V200 of the form: V0= 0.4*V200 at the Cerro Pachón and Paranal Observatories in Chile. A linear relationship between V0 and V200 was also found in San Pedro Mártir (Mexico) (Masciadri & Egner 2006,2 M&E06 hereafter). We study here the possible connection between V0 and V200 at the Teide Observatory (Spain).