Automated Shack-Hartmann seeing measurements at the South Pole

Abstract

The statistics and dynamics of the atmospheric seeing at the South Pole have been studied over a period of 101 days in winter. These measurements have been made with the first fully autonomous differential image motion monitor, the A-DIMM. The analysis shows an average seeing of 1.9″ with a standard deviation of 0.6″. The extensive set of data has allowed the study of the seeing time variations, showing that the seeing varies by a factor of two within a characteristic time of 2 hours.