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The Atacama Desert has long been established as an excellent site forsubmillimeter observations. Yet identifying potentially optimal locations for anew facility within this region can require long field campaigns that rely onthe construction of weather stations and radiometer facilities to take dataover sufficiently long timescales. Meanwhile, high-level remote sensing dataproducts from satellites have generally only been available at >25 kmresolution, limiting their utility for astronomical site selection. We aim toimprove and expedite the process of site selection through the use ofkm-resolution satellite data. We analyze the daytime precipitable water vapor(PWV) values inferred using near-IR measurements from the MODIS Aqua and Terrasatellites, comparing the level-2 satellite products to those from existingground-based measurements from the radiometer at the Atacama PathfinderExperiment (APEX) site. Since the APEX radiometer data has been extensivelytested and compared to atmospheric transmission models, particularly in low-PWVconditions of interest for astronomy, we use these data to provide are-calibration of the MODIS data for the entire region. After re-calibration,the satellite data allow mapping of the PWV across the region, and we identifyseveral promising sites. We demonstrate a potentially powerful method forsiting new facilities such as AtLAST and extensions to global very longbaseline interferometry networks like the EHT. Further, our findings identify atrend in both the APEX and MODIS data, and indicate that the PWV has increasedmoderately over the past two decades. We verify this trend exists in theCoupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) climate models, and showthat it is worse in the case of greater increase in the average globaltemperature.

Two decades of km-resolution satellite-based measurements of the precipitable water vapor above the Atacama Desert