Thanks to the first mm studies on the territory of the former USSR in the early 1960s and succeeding sub-mm measurements in the 1970s – early 1980s at wavelengths up to 0.34 mm, a completely unique astroclimate was revealed in the Eastern Pamirs, only slightly inferior to the available conditions on the Chajnantor plateau in Chile and Mauna Kea. Due to its high plateau altitude (4300 – 4500 m) surrounded from all sides by big (~7000 m) air-drying icy mountains and remoteness from oceans this area has the lowest relative humidity in the former USSR and extremely high atmospheric stability. In particular, direct measurements of precipitated water vapor in the winter months showed typical pwv=0.8 – 0.9 mm with sometimes of 0.27 mm. To validate previous studies and to compare them with results for other similar regions we performed opacity calculations at mm – sub-mm wavelengths for different sites in the Eastern Pamirs, Tibet, Indian Himalayas, APEX, ALMA, JCM, LMT and many others. To do this we integrate radiative transfer equations using the output of NASA Global Modeling and Assimilation Office model GEOS-FPIT for more than 12 years. We confirm previous conclusions about exceptionally good astroclimate in the Eastern Pamirs. Due to its geographical location, small infrastructure and the absence of any interference in radio and optical bands, this makes the Eastern Pamirs the best place in the Eastern Hemisphere for both optical and sub-mm astronomy.
Detailed studies of physical and chemical conditions in regions of star formation need multiline observations of
different molecular species. A correct retrieval of systematic velocity fields in these objects from such measurements
requires accuracy of rest frequencies of about 1 m/s. Because of a very small thermal line broadening
at typical kinetic temperatures in dark clouds (Tk ~10 K) the precise knowledge of the hyperfine structure
of observed transitions is extremely important for line shape analysis. Unfortunately, the available laboratory
uncertainty for a large number of measured transitions is about 30 - 100 kHz. This value is comparable with
molecular line widths in dark clouds and very often it is sufficient only for identification of observed species but
not for detailed kinematical studies from multiline data. Taking into account our recent laboratory and radio
astronomical studies, a large set of molecular spectra were measured with ~10-9 relative uncertainty, including
precise estimates of hf structure. It is shown that whereas laboratory methods are sufficiently good for stable
molecules, the use of radio astronomical measurements may be preferable for laboratory unstable species.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.