The Astronomical Characteristics of Andean Sites

在过去的三分之一个世纪里，太空中的仪器给我们对宇宙的理解带来了巨大的进步。然而，在透明或半透明的大气窗口中，地面观测站在多功能性、灵活性、大小方面保持着重要的优势，并以低得多的成本推动新的技术发展和开创性研究。这类观测站的地点位于干燥的高海拔地区，那里的气流几乎是层流的。这项提议旨在描述智利北部高阿塔卡马沙漠地区的天文特性，这可能是地球上最好的地区。*

GiovanelliAST 9910136In the last third of a century, instruments in space have brought forth great advances to our understanding of the cosmos. Yet, in transparent or semi-transparent atmospheric windows ground-based observatories maintain important advantages in terms of versatility, flexibility, size and , at much lesser cost, propel new technical developments and seminal research. The sites for such observatories are in dry, high altitude locations where air flow tends to be nearly laminar. This proposal aims at characterizing the astronomical properties of a region in the high Atacama Desert in northern Chile, which may turn out to be the best on Earth.***