Satellite characterization of four interesting sites for astronomical instrumentation

TL;DR

This study assesses the availability of clear and stable nights for astronomical observations at four sites using satellite data from 2008-2009, providing valuable insights for telescope site selection.

Contribution

It applies a homogeneous satellite-based methodology to evaluate clear and stable nights across four astronomical sites, including ground-based validation.

Findings

Izana has 68.6% cloud-free nights on average.

San Pedro Martir has 76.0% cloud-free nights on average.

El Leoncito has 70.6% cloud-free nights on average.

Abstract

In this paper we have evaluated the amount of available telescope time at four interesting sites for astronomical instrumentation. We use the GOES 12 data for the years 2008 and 2009. We use a homogeneous methodology presented in several previous papers to classify the nights as clear (completely cloud-free), mixed (partially cloud-covered), and covered. Additionally, for the clear nights, we have evaluated the amount of satellite stable nights which correspond to the amount of ground based photometric nights, and the clear nights corresponding to the spectroscopic nights. We have applied this model to two sites in the Northern Hemisphere (San Pedro Martir (SPM), Mexico; Izana, Canary Islands) and to two sites in the Southern Hemisphere (El Leoncito, Argentine; San Antonio de Los Cobres (SAC), Argentine). We have obtained, from the two years considered, a mean amount of cloud free nights of 68.6% at Izana, 76.0% at SPM, 70.6% at Leoncito and 70.0% at SAC. We have evaluated, among the cloud free nights, an amount of stable nights of 62.6% at Izana, 69.6% at SPM, 64.9% at Leoncito, and 59.7% at SAC.