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Precipitable water vapor (PWV) estimations from the site of the Eastern Anatolia Observatory∗ (DAG), a new astronomical observatory in Turkey

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Abstract

We present preliminary statistics on the precipitable water vapor (PWV) content over the Karakaya Hills in Erzurum city, where the largest optical and near-infrared astronomical telescope in Turkey will be operated. Since the observatory will observe in the near-infrared (NIR), it is intended to perform PWV measurements of the atmosphere above the site by using signal delays in Global Positioning System (GPS) communication. The analysis of the GPS data recorded on the summit for almost one year shows that the atmosphere over the site of the observatory, which has an altitude of 3170 m, has favorable conditions for NIR observations. From GPS measurements, we report that the site had an average PWV of 3.2 mm and a median PWV of 2.7 mm between October 6, 2016, and June 15, 2017. We also present the time dependency of the PWV content and the correlations between the amount of PWV and the other meteorological records gathered from radiosonde flights and ground-based measurements.

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Notes

  1. In the literature, some authors prefer to use integrated water vapor (IWP) instead of PWV. The relationship between these two quantities is given by PWV = IWP / ρ, where ρ is the density of liquid water, e.g., as defined in [3]

  2. http://www.suominet.ucar.edu

  3. Global Navigation Satellite System

  4. http://www.igs.org/

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Acknowledgements

The Eastern Anatolia Observatory, DAG, is fully funded by the Ministry of Development of Turkey (Project ID: 2011K120230). This study was supported by TUBITAK, The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, under the contract number of 115F032. We thank Turkish State Meteorological Service for their supply of meteorological data recorded in Erzurum Province and all staff of Atatürk University, Astrophysics Research and Application Center (ATASAM) for providing infrastructure facilities. We also thank the anonymous referee for his/her valuable comments to improve the text.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Science, Department of Astronomy and Space Sciences, Ankara University, 06100, Anadolu, Ankara, Turkey

    Sacit Özdemir, Derya Öztürk & Deniz Çoker

  2. TÜBİTAK National Observatory, 07058, Antalya, Turkey

    Sacit Özdemir

  3. Astrophysics Research and Application Center (ATASAM), Atatürk University, 25240, Yakutiye, Erzurum, Turkey

    Cahit Yeşilyaprak, Derya Öztürk, Deniz Çoker & Recep Balbay

  4. Faculty of Science, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Atatürk University, 25240, Yakutiye, Erzurum, Turkey

    Cahit Yeşilyaprak

  5. Faculty of Engineering, Department of Geophysical Engineering, Ankara University, 50. Yıl Yerleşkesi, 06830, Gölbaşı, Ankara, Turkey

    Bahadır Aktuğ

  6. Faculty of Science, Department of Astronomy and Space Sciences, Erciyes University, 38030, Melikgazi, Kayseri, Turkey

    Recep Balbay

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  1. Sacit Özdemir
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Correspondence to Sacit Özdemir.

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http://dag.atauni.edu.tr, http://atasam.atauni.edu.tr/

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Özdemir, S., Yeşilyaprak, C., Aktuğ, B. et al. Precipitable water vapor (PWV) estimations from the site of the Eastern Anatolia Observatory∗ (DAG), a new astronomical observatory in Turkey. Exp Astron 46, 323–336 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-018-9605-2

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