Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2018 Annual Meeting of the APS Four Corners Section
Volume 63, Number 16
Friday–Saturday, October 12–13, 2018; University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah
Session G01: Poster Session
5:00 PM,
Friday, October 12, 2018
CSC
Room: 205/206
Chair: David Kieda, University of Utah
Abstract ID: BAPS.2018.4CS.G01.18
Abstract: G01.00018 : Correlating All Sky Images with Weather Data at the Magdalena Ridge Observatory*
Presenter:
E. Garcia
(New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology)
Authors:
E. Garcia
(New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology)
M. J. Creech-Eakman
(New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Magdalena Ridge Observatory)
D. Klinglesmith
(New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Magdalena Ridge Observatory)
The Magdalena Ridge Observatory takes nightly pictures with an all-sky camera for cloud coverage. An automated approach was developed to analyze the images and gather data from them. A multi-program system first located all images in the archive, analyzed average photon counts per pixel, and categorized them into either a “moon” or “no moon” folder depending on the counts. Next, images in each of the folders had different threshold counts to determine the presence of clouds in the image by analyzing standard deviation. In the “moon” files this is accomplished by masking out the moon. Finally, images are examined along with the numeric statistics. Results to date show that the analysis agrees with visual inspection ~70% of the time for images with the moon, and ~88% of the time when the moon is absent. The next steps will be to correlate the cloud coverage statistics with other measurements to determine how many nights per year are viable for astronomical research.
*This material is based on research sponsored by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) under agreement number FA9453-15-2-0086. The views and conclusions contained herein are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies or endorsements of AFRL and/or the U.S. Government.
To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2018.4CS.G01.18
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