Abstract In this article, we present detailed seasonal, monthly and daily statistics of temperature difference in the surface layer at the Muztagh-ata site based on the temperature measurements at two heights of 2 m and 6 m. We find that temperature inversion occurs frequently at our site during nighttime, especially during the cold season. Strong temperature inversion always represents stable atmospheric turbulence, which is crucial for an optical observatory. By analyzing the behavior of temperature inversion and its correlation with wind and cloud amount, one conclusion can be made that radiation inversion is the main reason for the existence of temperature inversion in the surface-layer at the Muztagh-ata site.
Keywords site-testing — atmospheric turbulence — temperature inversion
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