FOROT · 3D Optical Turbulence Forecasts above Astronomical Sites

Final Activity Report Summary - FOROT (3D optical turbulence forecasts above astronomical sites)

The FOROT project definitely succeeded in setting-up an independent research group on a new research line. FOROT is, at present, a 'unique experiment' at international level. It is the unique research group conceived in an astronomical context with cross-discipline competences and skills covering the astronomical and physics of the atmosphere domains. The scientific activity of the FOROT Team concerns the characterisation of the optical turbulence developed above astronomical sites done with measurements as well as simulations obtained with atmospherical models of different nature (mesoscale and general circulation models). These studies include the effects of turbulence on the new techniques/instruments at present conceived to optimise the ground-based astronomical observations: the adaptive optics techniques. The Team composition is totally international and respects the gender diversity (50% women, 50% men). The goal to achieve a heterogeneous team composed by young members coming from different research fields has been definitely attained. The Meso-Nh meso-scale model has been installed on local powerfully workstations and it is used in the Host Institute in autonomous way from supercomputers of international meteorological centres. This was a necessary condition to get feasible the project and one of the most important qualitative indicators for the project. The training as well as the scientific activity of the whole team has been characterised by an absolute multidisciplinary approach. The international collaborations have been undertaken with colleagues coming from different fields and working in different disciplines: physics of the atmosphere and astrophysics. These activities are of different nature: (A) Scientific collaborations that provided publication of papers. (B) Organisation of experimental site testing campaigns for sites characterisation as well as for new instruments validation. (C) Participation to an international consortium set-up for the construction of the Laser guide star system for the LBT (ARGOS) supported by an adaptive optics system. The team had a consistent scientific publications rate considering that we are dealing about a new research line and a young research group. An international conference has been organised by the team to promote the meeting of two communities: astronomers and meteorologists. This conference concretely put the bases for a roadmap towards the transfer of the technique/method for the optical turbulence forecast proposed by FOROT to the operational management of modern ground-based telescopes. Synergies with the European Southern Observatory (ESO) have been established and a feasibility study to be carried out by the FOROT team has been envisaged by ESO in application to the most important astronomical sites of the European astronomical ground-based facilities: the Very Large Telescope and the E-ELT. FOROT achieved all the main scientific objectives previously defined for the two major leading topics: site selection (applied to the internal Antarctic plateau) and optical turbulence forecast (applied to Mt. Graham). In conclusion of the project we can state that the model-system is ready to be run systematically in operational mode above Mt. Graham. The Astro-Mh code has been parallelised and the team is now working on benchmark tests for CPU calculations with processors used in MPI mode. Besides, the team is in the process to be authorised by the national and international responsible agencies for accessing the real-time data set necessary to initialise the meso-scale models. The data set is provided by general circulation models extended on the whole Earth. The intention is to start with a nightly run of the Meso-Nh model above Mt. Graham with local powerfully workstation. To be operational and efficient we are defining the hardware specification for a dedicated PC clusters. Our algorithms for the optical turbulence parameterisation have been implemented by the Mauna Kea Weather Centre in their weather prediction system. A future European-American collaboration is among the best output one can figure out for this project. The peculiar nature of FOROT group offers incredible interesting perspectives and potentialities for the group itself. A web page of the FOROT project is available (http://forot.arcetri.astro.it) in which are reported the main results achieved in the project and are depicted the main objectives of the project using a language relatively simple. Such a web page can be used as a pedagocic tool for public at large as well as to trigger interest and understanding from astronomers.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз