Astron. Astrophys. Suppl. Ser. 147, 271-284

A meteorological and photometric study of the Oukaimeden site

Comparison with the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos using Carlsberg Automatic Meridian Circle data

A. Jabiri¹ - Z. Benkhaldoun¹ - J. Vernin² - C. Muñoz-Tuñón³

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1 - Laboratoire de Physique des Hautes Énergies et Astrophysique, Département de Physique, Faculté des Sciences Semlalia,BP. 2390, Marrakech, Maroc
2 - Département d'Astrophysique, CNRS UMR 6525, Université des Sciences, F-06108 Nice Cedex 2, France
3 - Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, E-38200 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain

Received February 28; accepted July 4, 2000

Abstract:

In this paper, we present meteorological and photometric studies of the Oukaimeden astronomical site in Morocco. The meteorological measurements were obtained over 537 days. The photometric data were measured by both FIP and GONG instruments over 1182 days. We have also analysed the weather parameters at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos (ORM) in the Canary Islands. More than ten years of measurements with the Carlsberg Automatic Meridian Circle (CAMC) are included, corresponding to 2931 nights of atmospheric extinction measurements.

These different data sets demonstrate photometric sky quality, wind speed and direction, local relative humidity, temperature and other parameters, such as the barometric pressure at the ORM and the precipitation at Oukaimeden. We have separated the day- and night-time data to provide information relevant to solar and stellar observations. Data from the Oukaimeden site have been compared to the ORM site, recognized as one of the best astronomical sites in the world and the results from our data confirm that Oukaimeden constitutes an excellent potential site for astronomical observations.

Key words: site testing