{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,16]],"date-time":"2026-03-16T08:47:09Z","timestamp":1773650829860,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":49,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"24","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,8]],"date-time":"2022-12-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1670457600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100006769","name":"RSF","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["22-72-00049"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["22-72-00049"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100006769","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation","award":["22-72-00049"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["22-72-00049"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The development of a network of ground-based telescopes requires detailed astroclimatic studies. This paper presents the spatial distributions of precipitable water vapor (PWV), total cloud cover (TCC) and cloud base height (CBH). With the aim of a representative description of the precipitable water vapor, a method for correcting this characteristic which takes into account the underlying surface is proposed. The method uses the exponential decrease in the water vapor content with the altitude and is based on the calculation of the averaged elevation of the grid nodes around the site. By applying this correction method, the seasonal changes in the median PWV values at the sites of Ali, Muztag-Ata and Suffa, as well as within the Chajnantor area are estimated. We show that the decrease of PWV with the altitude is exponential with a height scale of 1000 m for the sites in South America and Eurasia. The astroclimatic characteristics within the Big Telescope Alt-azimuthal (BTA) region (40\u2218N\u201350\u2218N; 35\u2218E\u201355\u2218E) are estimated. In this region, the sites suitable for the millimeter and submillimeter (mm\/submm) observations are revealed. New sites are Mt. Horai and Mt. Kurapdag. In addition, we show that the Era-5 reanalysis data overestimate the PWV values by 1\u20132 mm and describe changes in the monthly medians of PWV. Comparison of the calculated medians with the measured PWV show that the correlation coefficient between these characteristics is 0.97.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs14246221","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,9]],"date-time":"2022-12-09T03:23:49Z","timestamp":1670556229000},"page":"6221","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":17,"title":["Precipitable Water Vapor and Fractional Clear Sky Statistics within the Big Telescope Alt-Azimuthal Region"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1682-8182","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Artem Yu.","family":"Shikhovtsev","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics, the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 664033 Irkutsk, Russia"}]},{"given":"Pavel G.","family":"Kovadlo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics, the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 664033 Irkutsk, Russia"}]},{"given":"Vladimir B.","family":"Khaikin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Nizhnij Arkhyz, Zelenchukskiy Region, 369167 Karachai-Cherkessian, Russia"}]},{"given":"Alexander V.","family":"Kiselev","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics, the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 664033 Irkutsk, Russia"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,8]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"110","DOI":"10.1117\/12.456705","article-title":"The Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA)","volume":"4837","author":"Wootten","year":"2002","journal-title":"Proc. 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