Authors

Elena Masciadri, Franck Lascaux, Susanna Hagelin

Affiliations

INAF

Abstract

At the new generation ground-based facilities (ELTs) all observing operations will be done in Service Mode. It follows that, to optimize the flexible-scheduling of scientific observations, the optical turbulence prediction is mandatory, particularly when observations concerns AO facilities. Without such a tool the risk is that any potential advantage provided by an AO facility would be neutralized. In this contribution we will review the principle of the technique of optical turbulence prediction with non-hydrostatic mesoscale models as well as its most important challenges. Besides we will present the progress we recently obtained applying these models to top class astronomical sites.