Abstract
The Earth’s atmosphere has always acted as a screen between the observer and the rest of the Universe. The pre-Copernicans regarded it as the seat of the volatile elements because of its mobility, separating as it did the sublunar world from the world of the stars. From the time of Galileo, and up until the conquest of space, observations of photons were limited to the narrow window of the visible, and this range was extended only recently by the addition of radio frequencies. Despite the recent development of observation from space, ground-based observation retains considerable advantages in terms of both access and cost. The global strategy of observational astronomy therefore requires an exact knowledge of the properties of the Earth’s atmosphere. With such a knowledge, the potential or the limits of ground-based observation can be defined, and, for each wavelength of the spectrum, the best altitude can be determined and the best sites chosen for new instruments. The choice of site is crucial. Many factors must be taken into account, and we shall describe them here. The Antarctic continent is now accessible for astronomy and will no doubt provide many important opportunities.
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Notes
- 1.
The first radioastronomical observation was made by American astronomer Karl Jansky (1905–1950), who observed the Sun in 1933, using a telecommunications antenna.
- 2.
The first balloons equipped with detectors date from about 1910, the first scientific rocket launches from 1946 (using the German V-2 rocket), and the first satellites in orbit from 1960.
- 3.
A detailed review of atmospheric bands in the radiofrequency range can be found in Methods of Experimental Physics, Vol. 12B. An inventory of telluric bands in the visible and near-infrared can be found in an atlas of the solar spectrum, where they arise as absorption bands.
- 4.
In millimetric astronomy, a very accurate measurement of the amount of water along the line of sight, combined with a careful model of the bands, can be used to almost completely eliminate them from observed spectra.
- 5.
A quantitative analysis can be found in Kaüfl et al., Exp. Astron. 2, 115, 1991.
- 6.
Named after the hugely productive Soviet mathematician Andreï Kolmogorov (1903–1987). Apart from the first detailed study of turbulence, he also worked on signal processing, the subject of Chap. ??.
- 7.
Woods J.D., Radio Sc. 4, 1289, 1969, discusses the transition between laminar and turbulent regimes in atmospheric flow.
- 8.
The book Methods of Experimental Physics, Vol. 12A, contains a detailed discussion of fluctuations in the ionospheric refractive index by T. Hagfon.
- 9.
An excellent review of the problems involved in selecting sites for optical astronomy can be found in Site Testing for Future Large Telescopes, European Southern Astronomy Workshop, J.P. Swings, Ed. Garching, 1983. See also the bibliography at the end of the book.
- 10.
See Miller D.B., Global of Cloud Cover, U.S. Dept. of Commerce, 1971.
- 11.
The French physicist Pierre Auger (1889–1993) observed cosmic rays at the Jungfraujoch observatory (Switzerland).
- 12.
This is a fast-moving area, but the many investigations into the quality of Antarctic sites can be followed at http://arena.unice.fr.
- 13.
Named after US physicist and astronomer James van Allen (1914–2006), who discovered the radiation (in fact, particle) belts which carry his name during the first space flights (the Explorer mission in 1958).
- 14.
Named after the French mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange (1736–1813), originally from the Piemonte, author of the Treatise on Analytical Mechanics, which uses differential calculus. He proved the existence of the stable points in the Solar System which carry his name.
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Léna, P., Rouan, D., Lebrun, F., Mignard, F., Pelat, D. (2012). The Earth Atmosphere and Space. In: Observational Astrophysics. Astronomy and Astrophysics Library. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21815-6_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21815-6_2
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