The AURA New Initiatives Office (NIO) NOAO organized a second "Sites" workshop, to build upon the success of SITES WORKSHOP I, which was held October 22-23, 2001, at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, La Serena, Chile. The focus of SITES WORKSHOP II, held in the NOAO Main Conference Room on July 1 and 2, 2002, was on SITES IN MEXICO AND THE USA SOUTH-WEST, with keynote presentation being Cloud Cover and Water Vapor Analysis for sites in this region, by Andre Erasmus. This analysis uses the same Meteosat and GOES-8 dataset, and analysis techniques, as the earlier study of Northern Chile sites.

PARTICIPANTS

Here is a PHOTOGRAPH (thanks to Kentara Motohara) taken at Tucson "High Noon"... Left to Right: Andrei Tokovinin (NOAO), Konstantinos Vogiatzis (U. Kentucky, soon NOAO), Claudia Hoegemann (IAC), Tom Bida (Lowell), Matthias Schoeck (CELT), David Hiriart (IA-UNAM), Hugo Schwarz (NOAO), Esperanza Carrasco (INAOE), Mark Chun (U. Hawaii), Remy Avila (IA-UNAM), Andre Erasmus (SAAO), Antonia Varela (IAC), Elena Masciadri (IA-UNAM), Pablo Recabarren (OAC), Mirta Mosconi (OAC), Marc Sarazin (ESO), George Djorgovski (Caltech), Larry Stepp (AURA-NIO), Alistair Walker (NOAO), Kentara Motohara (U. Tokyo). Absent: Sidney Wolff (NOAO). The participants of the meeting were those interested in, or already part of projects for, building the next generation of telescopes, in particular ELTs with aperture > 20-m, and concerned with the site selection for such telescopes.

PROGRAM

Monday July 1

Session I: USA and Mexican Sites

0900-0910 Introduction & Program update(Alistair Walker)

0910-1000 The Cloud and PWV analysis of SW USA and Mexico (study funded by CELT and AURA, using satellite data purchased by AURA, ESO and U. Tokyo). Part 1 - Overview, region meteorology and climatology, methods First half, html] , [Second half, html] (Andre Erasmus)

1000-1010 short break

1010-1200 The Cloud and PWV analysis of SW USA and Mexico Part II - Analysis & results, comparison with Chile, followed by discussion. (Andre Erasmus).

1200-1300 Lunch (catered)

Session II: Sites and Programs

1300-1330 Site testing at Sierra Negra [ppt] [html] (Esperanza Carrasco)

1330-1400 CELT Site Selection Process and Issues: An Overview [ppt] [html] (George Djorgovski)

1400-1430 The CELT-AURA Chile Campaign - (Matthias Schoeck)

1430-1500 Mauna Kea Site Testing [ppt] [html] (Mark Chun)

1500-1515 Break

1515-1600 CTIO/NIO reconaissance of some Northern Chile sites; plus -- TASCA, Tololo All Sky Camera ( [ppt] [html] (Hugo Schwarz)

1600-1630 Sites in NW Argentina [ppt] [html] (Pablo Recabarren)

1630-1700 The Chajnantor Plateau Site Survey [ppt] [html] (Riccardo Giovanelli, presented by Mirta Mosconi)

1700-1730 Discussion

Tuesday July 2

Session III: Modeling and Verification

0900-0930 MASS turbulence profiler: first results and plans [html] (Andrei Tokovinin)

0930-0950 Turbulence at San Pedro Martir: Update ( [ppt] [html] (Remy Avila)

0950-1000 SPM Update (David Hiriart)

1000-1030 Recent results with Meso-Nh: near ground wind simulations and model calibration. [ppt] [html] (Elena Masciadri)

1030-1045 Break

1045-1115 Image Quality, Meteorology and Isoplanatism at the ORM [ppt] [html] (Antonia Varela)

1115-1145 Site Characterization for MCAO-ELT at the Canarian Observatories [ppt] [html] (Claudia Hoegemann)

1145-1230 Discussion of modelling and verification plans

1230 Formal End of Meeting

1230-1330 Catered lunch

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Alistair Walker awalker@ctio.noao.edu

Last updated: July 8 2002