Global Site Selection for Astronomy
N. Aksaker, S.K. Yerli, M.A. Erdoğan, Z. Kurt, K. Kaba, M. Bayazit, C. Yesilyaprak
(Submitted on 4 Dec 2019)
A global site selection for astronomy was performed with 1 km spatial resolution (∼ 1 Giga pixel in size) using long term and up-to-date datasets to classify the entire terrestrial surface on the Earth. Satellite instruments are used to get the following datasets of Geographical Information System (GIS) layers: Cloud Coverage, Digital Elevation Model, Artificial Light, Precipitable Water Vapor, Aerosol Optical Depth, Wind Speed and Land Use — Land Cover. A Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) technique is applied to these datasets creating four different series where each layer will have a specific weight. We introduce for the first time a “Suitability Index for Astronomical Sites” namely, SIAS. This index can be used to find suitable locations and to compare different sites or observatories. Mid-western Andes in South America and Tibetan Plateau in west China were found to be the best in all SIAS Series. Considering all the series, less than 3 \% of all terrestrial surfaces are found to be the best regions to establish an astronomical observatory. In addition to this, only approximately 10 \% of all current observatories are located in good locations in all SIAS series. Amateurs, institutions or countries aiming to construct an observatory could create a short-list of potential site locations using layout of SIAS values for each country without spending time and budget.
Comments: 19 Pages, 4 Figures, 7 tables, Submitted to MNRAS
Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM); Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
Cite as: arXiv:1912.01911 [astro-ph.IM] (or arXiv:1912.01911v1 [astro-ph.IM] for this version)
Submission history
From: Nazim Aksaker
[v1] Wed, 4 Dec 2019 11:48:52 UTC (7,839 KB)
