Application of a regional model to astronomical site testing in western Antarctica

Abstract

The quality of ground-based astronomical observations is significantly affected by local atmospheric conditions, and the search for the best sites has led to the construction of observatories at increasingly remote locations, including recent initiatives on the high plateaus of East Antarctica where the calm, dry, and cloud-free conditions during winter are recognized as amongst the best in the world. Site selection is an important phase of any observatory development project, and candidate sites must be tested in the field with specialized equipment, a process both time consuming and costly. A potential means of screening site locations before embarking on field testing is through the use of regional climate models (RCMs). In this study, we describe the application of the Polar version of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to the preliminary site suitability assessment of a hitherto unstudied region in West Antarctica. Numerical simulations with WRF were carried out for the winter (MJJA) of 2011 at 3- and 1-km spatial resolution over a region centered on the Ellsworth mountain range. Comparison with observations of surface wind speed and direction, temperature, and specific humidity at nine automatic weather stations indicates that the model performed well in capturing the mean values and time variability of these variables. Credible features revealed by the model includes zones of high winds over the southernmost part of the Ellsworth Mountains, a deep thermal inversion over the Ronne-Fincher Ice Shelf, and strong west to east moisture gradient across the entire study area. Comparison of simulated cloud fraction with a CALIPSO spacebourne Lidar climatology indicates that the model may underestimate cloud occurrence, a problem that has been noted in previous studies. A simple scoring system was applied to reveal the most promising locations. The results of this study indicate that the WRF model is capable of providing useful guidance during the initial site selection stage of project development.