Preface: Site testing campaign for the Large Optical/infrared Telescope of China

Abstract

The Large Optical/infrared Telescope of China is a 12 meter diameter ground-based optical/infrared telescope which is proposed to be constructed in the western part of China in favor of its arid climate, and clear, dark nights. A site testing campaign was initiated between November 2016 and March 2019 in order to investigate long term astronomical weather conditions in the western part of China, specifically, at three sites: Ali in Tibet, Daocheng in Sichuan and Muztagh-ata in Xinjiang. This is the first attempt to evaluate long term performances of three candidate sites with uniformly calibrated instruments and data collecting/processing methods for a two-year span in China. In this special issue, we present nine papers that describe the whole site testing campaign, including preparation, data collecting/processing methods, instrument set up at three candidate sites as well as detailed statistics for the measurement results from March 2017 to March 2019.