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Numerical simulations of Optical Turbulence at low and high horizontalresolutionin Antarctica with a mesoscale meteorological model

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

F. Lascaux
Affiliation:
INAF/Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo E. Fermi 5, 50125 Florence, Italy
E. Masciadri
Affiliation:
INAF/Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo E. Fermi 5, 50125 Florence, Italy
S. Hagelin
Affiliation:
INAF/Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo E. Fermi 5, 50125 Florence, Italy
J. Stoesz
Affiliation:
INAF/Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo E. Fermi 5, 50125 Florence, Italy
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Abstract

It has already been demonstrated that a mesoscale meteorological model such asMeso-NH (Lafore et al. 1998) is highly reliable in reproducing 3D maps ofoptical turbulence (Masciadri et al. 1999; Masciadri & Jabouille  2001;Masciadri et al. 2004).Preliminary measurements above the Antarctic Plateau have so far indicated a pretty good value for theseeing: 0.27'' (Lawrence et al. 2004 ), 0.36'' (Agabi et al. 2006) or 0.4'' (Trinquet et al. 2008) at Dome C. However some uncertainties remain.That's why our group is focusing on a detailed study of the atmosphericflow and turbulence in the internal Antarctic Plateau.Our intention is to use the Meso-NH model to do predictions of theatmospheric flow and the corresponding optical turbulence in the internalplateau. The use of this model has another huge advantage: we have access toinformations inside an entire 3D volume which is not the case withobservations only.Two different configurations have been used: a low horizontal resolution (witha mesh-size of 100 km) and a high horizontal resolution with the grid-nestinginteractive technique (with a mesh-size of 1 km in the innermost domaincentered above the area of interest).We present here the turbulence distribution reconstructed by Meso-NH for 16nights monitored in winter time 2005, looking at the the seeingand the surface layer thickness.

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References

Agabi, K., Aristidi, E., Azaouit, M., et al., 2006, PASP, 118, 344 CrossRef
Lafore, J.-P., et al., 1998, Ann. Geophys., 16, 90 CrossRef
Lascaux, F., Masciadri, E., Hagelin, S., & Stoesz, J., 2009, MNRAS, in press [arXiv:0906.0129]
Lawrence, J., Ashley, M., Tokovinin, A., & Travouillon, T., 2004, Nature, 431, 278 CrossRef
Masciadri, E., Vernin, J., & Bougeault, P., 1999, A&AS, 137, 185
Masciadri, E., & Jabouille, P., 2001, A&A, 376, 727
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Trinquet, H., et al., 2008, PASP, 120, 864, 203 CrossRef