The ATCA Seeing Monitor

We present the design of, and a first analysis of data from, the atmospheric seeing monitor at the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). The seeing monitor has been operational almost continuously since 2004 May and every 10min delivers a measurement of the atmospheric phase stability at the observatory. Its measurements can be used by observers to help in deciding whether it is worth carrying out observations at millimetre wavelengths or whether a longer-wavelength backup project should be observed. We present a statistical analysis of the data recorded since 2004 September to characterize the annual variations in atmospheric path length fluctuations. Our analysis shows that in terms of phase stability, nights in spring, summer, and autumn are as good as, or better than, days in winter. We also find that the data imply that the turbulence in the lower few hundred metres of the atmosphere is predominantly responsible for the atmospheric seeing.