The Solar Tower Atmospheric Cherenkov Effect Experiment (STACEE) is a ground based gamma ray telescope which studies active galatic nuclei (AGNs). As a ground based experiment, data quality is directly related to atmospheric conditions. This thesis describes the process of verifying the reliability of astronomical weather predictions made by the Canadian Meteorological Service (CMS). This includes a description of the construction, calibration, and operation of a cloud detector at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Cloud cover data was collected from the beginning of September, 2003, to the beginning of November 2003. These data were compared to cloud cover weather predictions made by the CMS. A blind analysis consisted of scaling the CMS and real data, and calculating the correlation coefficient between these two sets of data. The correlation between the predictions and real sky conditions was 0.4622, well above the 0.1% significance level of 0.1906 Thus the CMS is determined to be a reliable weather predictor, and useful to the STACEE group.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.80879 |
| Date | January 2003 |
| Creators | Spreitzer, Teresa |
| Contributors | Ragan, K. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Physics.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002150840, proquestno: AAIMQ98744, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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