Site survey for the Giant Segmented Mirror Telescope
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abstract
The Giant Segmented Mirror Telescope (GSMT), along with other proposed Extremely Large Telescopes (ELT's) with apertures over 20-m, is likely to impose rather different site selection criteria than those for existing large telescopes. Advantageously, remote-sensing techniques allow rather more objective comparisons than was possible in the past, and the general task is aided by numerical modeling and new ground-based measurement techniques. In recognition of the difficulty of the site-selection process, co-operation between the several ELT projects is the norm. A description is given of the site survey for the GSMT, begun in late 1999, and now part of the GSMT studies and evaluation project, run by the Associated Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) New Initiatives Office (NIO).