Bibcode
Trinquet, H.; Varela, A. M.; Muñoz-Tuñón, C.; Vázquez-Ramió, H.; Vernin, J.; Giordano, C.
Bibliographical reference
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 430, Issue 4, p.3102-3111
Advertised on:
4
2013
Citations
42
Refereed citations
39
Description
We present a comparison between in situ measurements and forecasted data
at the Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos. Forecasting is obtained
with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model associated with a
turbulence parametrization which follows Trinquet-Vernin model. The
purpose of this study is to validate the capability of the WRF model to
forecast the atmospheric and optical conditions (seeing and related
adaptive optics parameters). The final aim is to provide a tool to
optimize the observing time in the observatories, the so-called flexible
scheduling. More than 4500 h of simulations above Observatorio del Roque
de Los Muchachos (ORM) site with WRF in 2009 were calculated, and
compared with data acquired during 2009 with Automatic Weather Station,
Differential Image Motion Monitor and Multiple Aperture Scintillation
Sensor. Each simulation corresponds to a 24h in advance forecasting with
one predicted value each hour. Comparison shows that WRF forecasting
agrees well with the effective meteorological parameters at ground
level, such as pressure (within a scatter σP = 1.1
hPa), temperature (σT = 2 K), wind speed
(σ|V| = 3.9 m s-1) and relative humidity
(σ _{R_h}=18.9 per cent). Median precipitable water vapour content
above the ORM predicted by WRF in 2009 is 3 mm, close to 3.8 mm reported
in the literature over the period 2001-2008. For what concern optical
parameters (seeing, coherence time, isoplanatic angle), WRF forecasting
are in good agreement on nightly or monthly basis, better than random or
carbon-copy tries. We hope to improve these results with a better
vertical and horizontal grid resolution. Our method is robust enough to
be applied to potential astronomical sites, where no instruments are
available.