An Analysis of the Fragmentation of Observing Time At the Muztagh-Ata Site

作者：Wenbo Gu, Jing Xu, Guojie Feng, Xuan Zhang, Letian Wang, Xin-Liang Wang, Ali Esamdin, Lixian Shen · 发表于：Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.1088/1674-4527/ad0a32 · 被引用次数：5 · 研究领域：Historical Astronomy and Related Studies、History and Developments in Astronomy、Astro and Planetary Science

Abstract Cloud cover plays a pivotal role in assessing observational conditions for astronomical site-testing. Except for the fraction of observing time, its fragmentation also wields a significant influence on the quality of nighttime sky clarity. In this article, we introduce the function Γ ∈ 0 , 1 , designed to comprehensively capture both the fraction of available observing time and its continuity. Leveraging in situ measurement data gathered at the Muztagh-Ata site between 2017 and 2021, we showcase the effectiveness of our approach. The statistical result illustrates that the Muztagh-Ata site affords approximately 122 nights that were absolutely clear and 205 very good nights annually, corresponding to Γ ≥ 0.9 and Γ ≥ 0.36 respectively.