Astron. Astrophys. Suppl. Ser. 137, 185-202
E. Masciadri1 - J. Vernin1 - P. Bougeault2
Send offprint request: E. Masciadri
1 - U.M.R. 6525 Astrophysique, Université de Nice-Sophia Antipolis, Centre
National de la Recherche Scientifique, Parc Valrose, 06108 Nice Cedex 2,
France
2 - Centre National de Recherches Météorologiques
Météo France,
42 Av. G. Coriolis, 31057 Toulouse, France
Received June 4, 1998; accepted February 4, 1999
These last years have seen the development of many devices to
measure and monitor some atmospheric parameters characterizing the image
degradation at the telescope focus. Many uncertainties about the
possibility to forecast such parameters are real although this skill is fundamental for site testing,
flexible scheduling and optimization of the performance of both interferometry and
adaptive optics. We present our atmospheric numerical model,
conceived to provide 3D maps
of the classic meteorological parameters P, T and ,
and also 3D maps of the
optical turbulent profiles.
Knowing the wind
and the
profiles, the following integrated
parameters are coded: seeing
, coherence wavefront time
, isoplanatic angle
, scintillation rate
and spatial coherence outer scale
.
The ability of the model to produce a 3D map of optical turbulence in the vicinity of a telescope and the effects of horizontal grid size are discussed. We demonstrate, for the same night, the global coherence of the different simulation outputs. Here we consider the use that this model could have in ground-based astronomy and we describe how it could be used to give a real forecast of the optical turbulence.
Key words: atmospheric effects, turbulence, site testing
Copyright The European Southern Observatory (ESO)