Antarctic Air Visits Paranal
This beautiful panorama of ESO's Paranal Observatory was taken on 5 July 2012, and marks one of the driest days ever recorded at the Very Large Telescope complex. Paranal sits like an island in the middle of the frame, with massive cloud banks floating below, over the distant Pacific Ocean.
The extremely low humidity at Paranal during this period was recorded by a water vapour radiometer known as LHATPRO, which monitors the atmosphere to support the observations carried out at the observatory [1]. Meteorologists from two Chilean universities identified the cause for these unusually dry conditions: high-altitude Antarctic air moving far to the north, and descending over Paranal.
This cold front lingered around Paranal for over 12 hours, causing a record-low level of humidity in the air above the observatory [2]. Florian Kerber (ESO) and colleagues analysed this unusual weather, publishing the results in a paper in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on 29 January 2014, available here.
So, a dry desert… what is so special about that? Well, dryness of this magnitude is normally experienced at much higher altitudes, for example at the ALMA Observatory on the Chajnantor Plateau, which is located at 5000 metres above sea level — at 2635 metres, the altitude of Paranal is around half of this. Given that infrared observations can be best taken when there is little water vapour in the air, this could mean that routine monitoring using the LHATPRO radiometer will give astronomers the opportunity to exploit future dry spells at Paranal, to obtain great infrared observations of the Universe around us.
The photo was taken by ESO photo ambassador Gabriel Brammer, who coincidentally experienced the sunset that immediately preceded this dry spell, and found it to be extraordinarily clear and beautiful. Gabriel works as an astronomer at the ESO La Silla-Paranal Observatory. When not supporting the operations of the observatory, he studies the formation and evolution of distant galaxies using the most sophisticated telescopes and instrumentation in the world, including the ESO Very Large Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope.
Links
Notes
[1] The Low Humidity and Temperature Profiling radiometer (LHATPRO), manufactured by Radiometer Physics GmbH in Germany, uses strong spectral lines from certain elements to measure the water content of the atmosphere.
[2] The humidity is measured in the form of precipitable water vapour — a measure of atmospheric water content. It is the amount of water in a column of the atmosphere if it were all to fall as rain. In this case only 0.1 mm of precipitable water vapour was measured — much less than the usual (but already low) figure of 2 mm at Paranal.
Enjoy also our exciting Virtual Tours.
Credit:ESO/G. Brammer
Acknowledgement: F. Kerber (ESO)
About the Image
| Id: | potw1405a-ext |
| Type: | Photographic |
| Release date: | 4 September 2017, 16:06 |
| Size: | 16000 x 8000 px |
| Field of View: | 360° x 180° |
About the Object
| Name: | Cerro Paranal |
| Type: | Unspecified : Technology : Observatory |
| Category: | 360 Panorama Paranal |
Image Formats
Our use of Cookies
We use cookies that are essential for accessing our websites and using our services. We also use cookies to analyse, measure and improve our websites’ performance, to enable content sharing via social media and to display media content hosted on third-party platforms.
ESO Cookies Policy
The European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO) is the pre-eminent intergovernmental science and technology organisation in astronomy. It carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities for astronomy.
This Cookies Policy is intended to provide clarity by outlining the cookies used on the ESO public websites, their functions, the options you have for controlling them, and the ways you can contact us for additional details.
What are cookies?
Cookies are small pieces of data stored on your device by websites you visit. They serve various purposes, such as remembering login credentials and preferences and enhance your browsing experience.
Categories of cookies we use
Essential cookies (always active): These cookies are strictly necessary for the proper functioning of our website. Without these cookies, the website cannot operate correctly, and certain services, such as logging in or accessing secure areas, may not be available; because they are essential for the website’s operation, they cannot be disabled.
Functional Cookies: These cookies enhance your browsing experience by enabling additional features and personalization, such as remembering your preferences and settings. While not strictly necessary for the website to function, they improve usability and convenience; these cookies are only placed if you provide your consent.
Analytics cookies: These cookies collect information about how visitors interact with our website, such as which pages are visited most often and how users navigate the site. This data helps us improve website performance, optimize content, and enhance the user experience; these cookies are only placed if you provide your consent. We use the following analytics cookies.
Matomo Cookies:
This website uses Matomo (formerly Piwik), an open source software which enables the statistical analysis of website visits. Matomo uses cookies (text files) which are saved on your computer and which allow us to analyze how you use our website. The website user information generated by the cookies will only be saved on the servers of our IT Department. We use this information to analyze www.eso.org visits and to prepare reports on website activities. These data will not be disclosed to third parties.
On behalf of ESO, Matomo will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage.
Matomo cookies settings:
Additional Third-party cookies on ESO websites: some of our pages display content from external providers, e.g. YouTube.
Such third-party services are outside of ESO control and may, at any time, change their terms of service, use of cookies, etc.
YouTube: Some videos on the ESO website are embedded from ESO’s official YouTube channel. We have enabled YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode, meaning that no cookies are set unless the user actively clicks on the video to play it. Additionally, in this mode, YouTube does not store any personally identifiable cookie data for embedded video playbacks. For more details, please refer to YouTube’s embedding videos information page.
Cookies can also be classified based on the following elements.
Regarding the domain, there are:
- First-party cookies, set by the website you are currently visiting. They are stored by the same domain that you are browsing and are used to enhance your experience on that site;
- Third-party cookies, set by a domain other than the one you are currently visiting.
As for their duration, cookies can be:
- Browser-session cookies, which are deleted when the user closes the browser;
- Stored cookies, which stay on the user's device for a predetermined period of time.
How to manage cookies
Cookie settings: You can modify your cookie choices for the ESO webpages at any time by clicking on the link Cookie settings at the bottom of any page.
In your browser: If you wish to delete cookies or instruct your browser to delete or block cookies by default, please visit the help pages of your browser:
Please be aware that if you delete or decline cookies, certain functionalities of our website may be not be available and your browsing experience may be affected.
You can set most browsers to prevent any cookies being placed on your device, but you may then have to manually adjust some preferences every time you visit a site/page. And some services and functionalities may not work properly at all (e.g. profile logging-in, shop check out).
Updates to the ESO Cookies Policy
The ESO Cookies Policy may be subject to future updates, which will be made available on this page.
Additional information
For any queries related to cookies, please contact: pdprATesoDOTorg.
As ESO public webpages are managed by our Department of Communication, your questions will be dealt with the support of the said Department.