Lessons learned from the TMT site testing campaign

TL;DR

This paper shares practical lessons learned from a five-year site testing campaign for the Thirty Meter Telescope, providing insights applicable to future observatory site evaluations.

Contribution

It offers a comprehensive summary of lessons learned during the TMT site testing campaign, aiding future site selection efforts.

Findings

Lessons applicable to site preselection and operations

Insights into data analysis challenges

Guidelines for future site testing campaigns

Abstract

After a site testing campaign spanning 5 sites over a period of 5 years, the site selection for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) culminated with the choice of Mauna Kea 13N in Hawaii. During the campaign, a lot practical lessons were learned by our team and these lessons can be shared with current and future site testing campaign done for other observatories. These lessons apply to the preselection of the site, the ground work and operations of the campaign as well as the analysis of the data. We present of selection of such lessons in this paper preceded by a short summary of the TMT site testing activities.