Juan P. Madrid, Duccio Macchetto
We derive the ranking of the astronomical observatories with the highest impact in astronomy based on the citation analysis of papers published in 2006. We also present a description of the methodology we use to derive this ranking. The current ranking is lead by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, followed by Swift and the Hubble Space Telescope.
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The carbon footprint of astronomical observatories
本文评估天文观测台及天文研究的碳足迹与减排途径，指出需通过研究活动的系统性变革实现1.5°C或2°C气候目标。
An understanding of wind speed and direction as a function of height are critical to the proper modeling of atmospheric turbulence. We have used radiosonde data from launch sites near significant astronomical observatories and created mean profiles of wind speed and direction and have also computed Richardson number profiles. Using data from the last 30 years, we extend the 1977 Greenwood wind profile to include parameters that show seasonal variations and differences in location. The added information from our models is useful for the design of adaptive optics systems and other imaging system…
Early earthquake warning is a rapidly developing capability that has significant ramifications for many fields, including astronomical observatories. In this work, we describe the susceptibility of astronomical facilities to seismic events, including large telescopes as well as second-generation ground-based gravitational-wave interferometers. We describe the potential warning times for observatories from current seismic networks and propose locations for future seismometers to maximize warning times.
We present a machine learning based information retrieval system for astronomical observatories that tries to address user defined queries related to an instrument. In the modern instrumentation scenario where heterogeneous systems and talents are simultaneously at work, the ability to supply with the right information helps speeding up the detector maintenance operations. Enhancing the detector uptime leads to increased coincidence observation and improves the likelihood for the detection of astrophysical signals. Besides, such efforts will efficiently disseminate technical knowledge to a wid…
Analysis of Laser-Satellite Deconfliction for Astronomical Observatories
针对天文激光观测台，分析不同科学曝光时长、激光禁入锥半角及目标类型对可用开放时间比例的影响，并评估卫星巨型星座的日益影响及豁免协议的有效性。
This work addresses the development of the astronomical observatory all through history, from an architectural point of view, as a building in relation to the observing instruments and their functioning as a heterogeneous work center. We focused on 32 observatories (in the period 1259-2007) and carefully analyzed the architectures. Considering the impact of the construction itself or its facilities on the results of the research (thermal or structural stability, poor weather protection, turbulence, etc.), there is little attention paid to theories or studies of the architectural or constructio…
Between the mid-eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries, long-haul oceanic voyages of exploration and discovery routinely carried astronomical tent observatories to support land-based longitude determinations using heavy and cumbersome astronomical regulators and transit telescopes. Following James Cook's deployment of a pilot tent observatory on his first voyage to the Pacific in 1768-1771, the tent design was altered by William Bayly for more convenient use on Cook's second and third voyages to the Pacific. Bayly's design became the standard structure of tent observatories assigned to shipbo…
The sustained increase of emissions of artificial light is causing a progressive brightening of the night sky in most of the world. This process represents a threat for the long-term sustainability of the scientific and educational activity of ground-based astronomical observatories operating in the optical range. Huge investments in building, scientific and technical workforce, equipment and maintenance can be at risk if the increasing light pollution levels hinder the capability of carrying out the top-level scientific observations for which these key scientific infrastructures were built. I…
As the 50th anniversary of the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) draws near, the author was surprised to learn that the published latitude and longitude for CTIO in the Astronomical Almanac and iraf observatory database appears to differ from modern GPS-measured geodetic positions by nearly a kilometer. Surely, the position for CTIO could not be in error after five decades? The source of the discrepancy appears to be due to the ~30" difference between the astronomical and geodetic positions -- a systematic effect due to vertical deflection first reported by Harrington, Mintz Blanc…
For decades, perhaps even centuries, the exchange of publications between observatories was the most important source of information on new astronomical results, either in the form of observational data or new scientific theories. In particular, small observatories or institutions used this method. The exchange of physical material between observatories has now been replaced by the exchange of information via the Internet. Yet much of the ancient material has never been digitized and can only be found in the few existing collections of observatory publications. A recent donation of such a coll…
Visplot: A visibility plot and observation scheduling tool for astronomical observatories
Visplot是一款开源工具，用于天文观测的可见性分析和调度，支持灵活的调度需求，适用于现代天文台的实践需求。
We present here a provenance management system adapted to astronomical projects needs. We collected use cases from various astronomy projects and defined a data model in the ecosystem developed by the IVOA (International Virtual Observatory Alliance). From those use cases, we observed that some projects already have data collections generated and archived, from which the provenance has to be extracted (provenance "on top"), and some projects are building complex pipelines that automatically capture provenance information during the data processing (capture "inside"). Different tools and protot…
Xinglong Observatory of the National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC), is one of the major optical observatories in China, which hosts nine optical telescopes including the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) and the 2.16 m reflector. Scientific research from these telescopes is focused on stars, galaxies, and exoplanets using multicolor photometry and spectroscopic observations. Therefore, it is important to provide the observing conditions of the site, in detail, to the astronomers for an efficient use of these facilities. In this …
Although the astronomy community is witnessing an era of large telescopes, smaller and medium sized telescopes still maintain their utility being larger in numbers. In order to obtain better scientific outputs it is necessary to incorporate modern and advanced technologies to the back-end instruments and to their interfaces with the telescopes through various control processes. However often tight financial constraints on the smaller and medium size observatories limit the scope and utility of these systems. Most of the time for every new development on the telescope the back-end control syste…
Astronomical sites occupying observing instruments have to be selected according to many factors. Among these factors, geographic location of the site and quality of atmosphere above the site play an important role in the decision process. The following factors were chosen to create layers at their geographic locations (observatories: 1905 northern, 235 southern) from the \href{https://www.astrogis.org}{astroGIS database}: CC (cloud coverage), PWV (precipitable water vapor), AOD (atmospheric optical depth), VWV (vertical wind velocity) and HWV (horizontal wind velocity). In order to estimate a…
Hybrid propagation physics for the design and modeling of astronomical observatories: a coronagraphic example
本文提出高斯光束分解（GBD）的传输矩阵形式化算法，将光线像差直接耦合进星冕仪物理光学模型，实现天文观测台一体化建模，模拟对比度达10^-11量级，验证了GBD在高对比度成像中的可行性。
We estimate the carbon footprint of astronomical research infrastructures, including space telescopes and probes and ground-based observatories. Our analysis suggests annual greenhouse gas emissions of $1.2\pm0.2$ MtCO$_2$e yr$^{-1}$ due to construction and operation of the world-fleet of astronomical observatories, corresponding to a carbon footprint of 36.6$\pm$14.0 tCO$_2$e per year and average astronomer. We show that decarbonising astronomical facilities is compromised by the continuous deployment of new facilities, suggesting that a significant reduction in the deployment pace of new fac…
Ushering in high angular resolution observatories in the far-infrared: The case for a double-Fourier interferometer
本研究提出天基远红外双傅里叶干涉仪，可大幅提升天文观测空间细节，助力系外行星、恒星及星系演化研究，补充现有规划并为下一代天文台做准备。
On the occasion of the International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009), we present a new interactive dictionary of astronomy and astrophysics, which contains about 7000 entries. This interdisciplinary and multicultural work is intended for professional and amateur astronomers, university students in astrophysics, as well as terminologists and linguists. A new approach is pursued in the formation of a scientific dictionary, which aims to display additional dimensions of astronomical concepts. Although Virtual Observatories recognize the necessity of efforts to define basic astronomical concepts and e…
(Abr.) Laser guide stars employed at astronomical observatories provide artificial wavefront reference sources to help correct (in part) the impact of atmospheric turbulence on astrophysical observations. Following the recent commissioning of the 4 Laser Guide Star Facility (4LGSF) on UT4 at the VLT, we characterize the spectral signature of the uplink beams from the 22W lasers to assess the impact of laser scattering from the 4LGSF on science observations. We use the MUSE optical integral field spectrograph to acquire spectra at a resolution of R~3000 of the uplink laser beams over the wavele…
SERVIMON: AI-Driven Predictive Maintenance and Real-Time Monitoring for Astronomical Observatories
ServiMon提出一种结合云原生技术与机器学习的可扩展智能流水线，用于天文望远镜系统的预测性维护、实时异常检测与监控，有效提升系统弹性与科学数据质量。
Generation of realistic input parameters for simulating atmospheric point-spread functions at astronomical observatories
本文利用天气预报模型生成高度相关的风场和湍流参数，模拟了Vera C. Rubin天文台的大气点扩散函数，并定量预测了其两点相关函数的各向异性特征。
Archives on astronomy from the 1950s
本文整理了15个天文台20世纪50年代的档案信息，重点列出哥本哈根大学天文台的相关通信与资料，并说明多数天文台无档案，相关文件将存放于丹麦国家档案馆。
Sites for next-generation telescopes are chosen decades before the first light of a telescope. Site selection is usually based on recent measurements over a period that is too short to account for long-term changes in observing conditions such as those arising from anthropogenic climate change. In this study, we analyse trends in astronomical observing conditions for eight sites. Most sites either already host telescopes that provide in situ measurements of weather parameters or are candidates for hosting next-generation telescopes. For a fine representation of orography, we use the highest re…
Observatories are complex scientific and technical institutions serving diverse users and purposes. Their telescopes, instruments, software, and human resources engage in interwoven workflows over a broad range of timescales. These workflows have been tuned to be responsive to concepts of observatory operations that were applicable when various assets were commissioned, years or decades in the past. The astronomical community is entering an era of rapid change increasingly characterized by large time domain surveys, robotic telescopes and automated infrastructures, and - most significantly - o…
AstroCompress: A benchmark dataset for multi-purpose compression of astronomical data
本文提出 AstroCompress 天文数据神经压缩基准，涵盖天基、地基、多波长和时间序列等多类16位成像数据集，并比较七种无损压缩方法，验证神经压缩可提升观测数据收集能力。
Observatories, Institutes and Centers that support major astronomical facilities have, for decades, played a key role in maximizing the scientific return from their facilities and telescopes. It is crucial to realize that an "observatory" is more than simply a telescope or ensemble of telescopes that provide observing opportunities for astronomers. Observatories are at the heart of an institutional capability to do things beyond what is possible for astronomers themselves to do as individuals. Observatories organize and mobilize a range of multidisciplinary skills for achieving a coherent and …
Exploring Ambient Radio Frequency Emissions
本文研究了射电天文台周围环境的射频辐射，探讨了无线电安静区的必要性，并强调了保护措施在减少射频干扰中的重要性。
Environmental impacts of astronomical research infrastructures
本文分析天文研究基础设施的环境影响，指出其是天文领域温室气体排放的主要来源，并提出使该领域可持续发展的变革建议。
An analysis of the impact of seismic and volcanic activity was carried out at selected astronomical sites, namely the observatories of El Teide (Tenerife, Canary Islands), Roque de los Muchachos (La Palma, Canary Islands), Mauna Kea (Hawaii) and Paranal (Chile) and the candidate site of Cerro Ventarrones (Chile). Hazard associated to volcanic activity is low or negligible at all sites, whereas seismic hazard is very high in Chile and Hawaii. The lowest geological hazard in both seismic and volcanic activity was found at Roque de los Muchachos observatory, in the island of La Palma.
Modern radio astronomical facilities are able to detect extremely weak electromagnetic signals not only from the universe but also from man-made radio frequency interference of various origins. These range from wanted signals to unwanted out-of-band emission of radio services and applications to electromagnetic interference produced by all kinds of electronic and electric devices. Energy harvesting wind turbines are not only equipped with electric power conversion hardware but also copious amounts of electronics to control and monitor the turbines. A wind turbine in the vicinity of a radio tel…
This article is a second analysis step from the descriptive arXiv:2001.10952 preprint. This work is aimed to arise awareness to the scientific astronomical community about the negative impact of satellites' mega-constellations and put in place an approximated estimations about loss of scientific contents expected for ground based astronomical observations when about 50,000 satellites will be displaced in LEO orbit. The first analysis regards the impact on professional astronomical images in optical windows. Then the study is expanded to other wavelengths and astronomical ground based facilitie…
A ready-to-deploy MLOps software platform for satellite and NEO detection at meter-class ground-based observatories
针对天文台缺乏集成ML工具的问题，本文提出StreakMind Workbench，一个基于PyQt5的MLOps平台，集成参考AI模型，支持从FITS摄取到数据库存储的完整工作流，并在La Sagra天文台273幅图像上验证成功，促进空间态势感知。
Astronomical X-ray observatories with grazing incidence optics face the problem of pseudo-focusing of low energy protons from the mirrors towards the focal plane. Those protons constitute a variable, unpredictable component of the non X-ray background that strongly affects astronomical observations and a correct estimation of their flux at the focal plane is then essential. For this reason, we investigate how they are scattered from the mirror surfaces when impacting with grazing angles. We compare the non-elastic model of reflectivity of particles at grazing incidence proposed by Remizovich e…
The effect of satellite constellations on observations in the visible and IR domains is estimated, considering 18 constellations in development by SpaceX, Amazon, OneWeb, and others, with over 26,000 satellites, constituting a representative distribution. This study uses a series of simplifications and assumptions to obtain conservative, order-of-magnitude estimates of the effects. The number of illuminated satellites from the constellations above the horizon ranges from ~1600 right after sunset, decreasing to 1100 at the end of astronomical twilight, most of them (~85%) close to the horizon (…
The infrared astronomy group of Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research has been pursuing astronomical instrumentation activities since its inception. The group has been routinely involved in balloon-borne astronomy programs from the field station at Hyderabad with indigenously developed payloads. Ground-based astronomical activities began with a single element infrared detector. Later, over time, larger format array detectors are being used in the cameras. These astronomy cameras have been routinely used at observatories across India. Recently, the g…
There are numerous advantages to exploiting diffraction-limited instrumentation at astronomical observatories, which include smaller footprints, less mechanical and thermal instabilities and high levels of performance. To realize such instrumentation it is imperative to convert the atmospheric seeing-limited signal that is captured by the telescope into a diffraction-limited signal. This process can be achieved photonically by using a mode reformatting device known as a photonic lantern that performs a multimode to single-mode transition. With the aim of developing an optimized integrated phot…
Satellite Impact on Astronomical Observations Based on Elliptical Orbit Model
本文提出基于TLE轨道数据的椭圆轨道卫星概率分布模型，量化卫星对全球天文台观测的影响，发现赤道附近及50度和80度纬度区域受低轨卫星干扰最严重，并用LAMOST成像数据验证了方法可靠性。
This article aims to highlight the impact for ground based astronomical observations in different windows of the electromagnetic spectrum coming from the deployment of fleets of telecommunications satellites. A particular attention is given to the problem of crowding of circumterrestrial space by medium/small size orbiting objects. Depending on their altitude and surface reflectivity, their contribution to the sky brightness is not negligible for professional ground based observations. With the huge amount of about 50,000 new artificial satellites for telecommunications planned to be launched …
International Astrophysical Consortium for High-energy Calibration: Summary of the 15th IACHEC Workshop
本报告总结第15届IACHEC研讨会活动，60位科学家研讨X射线观测台交叉校准现状与改进，涵盖校准源、统计技术等多方向工作组成果。
Wavelets have been used extensively for several years now in astronomy for many purposes, ranging from data filtering and deconvolution, to star and galaxy detection or cosmic ray removal. More recent sparse representations such ridgelets or curvelets have also been proposed for the detection of anisotropic features such cosmic strings in the cosmic microwave background. We review in this paper a range of methods based on sparsity that have been proposed for astronomical data analysis. We also discuss what is the impact of Compressed Sensing, the new sampling theory, in astronomy for collectin…
The radio astronomical data analysis package CASA was selected to be the designated tool for observers to analyse the data from the Atacama Large mm/sub-mm Array (ALMA) which is under construction and has recently started taking its first science data (Cycle 0). CASA is a large package which is being developed by NRAO with major contributions from ESO and NAOJ. Generally, all radio data from interferometers and single dish observatories can be analysed with CASA, but the development focuses presently on the needs of the new observatories EVLA and ALMA. This article describes the main features …
Virtual Observatory (VO) is a data-intensively online astronomical research and education environment, which takes advantages of advanced information technologies to achieve seamless and global access to astronomical information. AstroCloud is a cyber-infrastructure for astronomy research initiated by Chinese Virtual Observatory (China-VO) project, and also a kind of physical distributed platform which integrates lots of tasks such as telescope access proposal management, data archiving, data quality control, data release and open access, cloud based data processing and analysis. It consists o…
Measurements of the luminosity of type Ia supernovae vs. redshift provided the original evidence for the accelerating expansion of the Universe and the existence of dark energy. Despite substantial improvements in survey methodology, systematic uncertainty in flux calibration dominates the error budget for this technique, exceeding both statistics and other systematic uncertainties. Consequently, any further collection of type Ia supernova data will fail to refine the constraints on the nature of dark energy unless we also improve the state of the art in astronomical flux calibration to the or…
We summarize the 14th meeting of the International Astronomical Consortium for High Energy Calibration (IACHEC) held at \textit{Shonan Village} (Kanagawa, Japan) in May 2019. Sixty scientists directly involved in the calibration of operational and future high-energy missions gathered during 3.5 days to discuss the status of the cross-calibration between the current international complement of X-ray observatories, and the possibilities to improve it. This summary consists of reports from the various WGs with topics ranging from the identification and characterization of standard calibration sou…
The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory continuously observes gamma-rays between 100 GeV to 100 TeV in an instantaneous field of view of about 2 steradians above the array. The large amount of raw data, the importance of small number statistics, the large dynamic range of gamma-ray signals in time (1 - $10^8$ sec) and angular extent (0.1 - 100 degrees), and the growing need to directly compare results from different observatories pose some special challenges for the analysis of HAWC data. To address these needs, we have designed and implemented a modular analysis framework based o…
This white paper explains that professional astronomy has benefited from settler colonial white supremacist patriarchy. We explicate the impact that this has had on communities which are not the beneficiaries of colonialism and white supremacy. We advocate for astronomers to reject these benefits in the future, and we make proposals regarding the steps involved in rejecting colonialist white supremacy's benefits. We center ten recommendations on the timely issue of what to do about the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) on Maunakea in Hawaii. This paper is written in solidarity with and support of e…
The Potential Impact of Neuromorphic Computing on Radio Telescope Observatories
本文探讨神经形态计算在射电望远镜观测站中的应用潜力，通过分析不同神经形态方法对射电天文学处理流程的影响，提出利用SNNs降低能耗并提升RFI检测性能的解决方案。
We have discovered an anomalous behavior of CCD readout electronics that affects their use in many astronomical applications. An offset in the digitization of the CCD output voltage that depends on the binary encoding of one pixel is added to pixels that are read out one, two and/or three pixels later. One result of this effect is the introduction of a differential offset in the background when comparing regions with and without flux from science targets. Conventional data reduction methods do not correct for this offset. We find this effect in 16 of 22 instruments investigated, covering a var…
(Abridged) Canadian astronomy has, for decades, benefited from access to observatories and participating in international consortia on one of the best astronomical sites in the world: Maunakea. However, Maunakea is part of the unceded territory of the Native Hawaiian peoples and has always been of special significance to Hawaiian culture. The use of the summit and its science reserve has created tensions in the past decade, particularly with the development of the Thirty Meter Telescope. A meaningful and respectful response from the International astronomy community is still lacking. It is exp…
AstroQ: Automated Scheduling of Cadenced Astronomical Observations
本文提出自动化节律观测调度框架 AstroQ，可在大规模约束下生成可证明最优观测计划，并在 Keck 天文台系外行星项目中验证其高效动态调度能力。
Climate change is affecting and will increasingly affect astronomical observations. In this paper, we investigated the role some key weather parameters play in the quality of astronomical observations, and analysed their long-term trends (longer than 30 years) in order to grasp the impact of climate change on current and future observations. In this preliminary study, we specifically analysed four parameters, the temperature, the surface layer turbulence, the wind speed at the jetstream layer and the humidity. The analyses is conducted with data from the Very Large Telescope (VLT), operated by…
Impact of Satellite Trails on H.E.S.S. Astronomical Observations
本文利用 H.E.S.S. 数据首次系统量化了卫星轨迹对成像大气切伦科夫望远镜观测的影响，发现当前影响极小但轨迹探测率随时间上升，并警示其对未来 CTA 低能阈分析可能不可忽略。
International Astrophysical Consortium for High-energy Calibration: Summary of the 16th IACHEC Workshop
本文总结了第16届IACHEC研讨会的情况，61名科学家在3.5天内讨论了国际X射线天文台的交叉校准现状及改进，并汇总了各工作组在标准校准源、交叉校准活动、统计技术、仪器校准、知识保存等方面的报告。
SPHEREx is a proposed NASA MIDEX mission selected for Phase A study. SPHEREx would carry out the first all-sky spectral survey in the near infrared. At the end of its two-year mission, SPHEREx would obtain 0.75-to-5$μ$m spectra of every 6.2 arcsec pixel on the sky, with spectral resolution R>35 and a 5-$σ$ sensitivity AB$>$19 per spectral/spatial resolution element. More details concerning SPHEREx are available at http://spherex.caltech.edu. The SPHEREx team has proposed three specific science investigations to be carried out with this unique data set: cosmic inflation, interstellar and circum…
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