An astroclimatological study of candidate sites to host an imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope in Romania

TL;DR

This study evaluates meteorological conditions at four Romanian sites and compares them with a reference site in the Canary Islands to identify the most suitable location for an atmospheric Cherenkov telescope in Romania.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive astroclimatological analysis of Romanian sites for telescope placement, highlighting Baisoara as the optimal location based on long-term meteorological data.

Findings

Baisoara is the most suitable site among the Romanian locations.

Romanian sites show significant differences from the Canary Islands reference.

The Apuseni Mountains are identified as the best region for astronomical observations in Romania.

Abstract

We come out in this paper with an astroclimatological study of meteorological data on relative humidity, dew point temperature, air temperature, wind speed, barometric air pressure, and sky cloudiness recorded at four Romanian locations (Baisoara, Rosia Montana, Semenic, Ceahlau) and Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) located at Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos, in the Canary Islands. Long term trends of microclimates have been compared in order to identify the site-to-site variations. We have performed this analysis as part of a site testing campaign aimed at finding the best location for the establishment of a small Cherenkov telescope in Romania. The conditions at the Romanian sites have been compared to those of the Canary Islands considered as a reference. A statistical approach has been used for data analysis. Monthly and annual samples have been extracted from series of raw data for nighttime, daytime and entire day intervals. Percentage distributions of meteorological parameters, whose values exceed certain limits, have been derived. Significant differences have been found between the Romanian sites and the NOT site. The comparison of the Romanian locations indicates Baisoara to be the best site for the establishment of the telescope, closely followed by Rosia Montana. As these two sites are both located in the Apuseni Mountains, we consider this area as the optimal place for performing astronomical observations in Romania.