Background on the external conditions for Rubin

Shenming Yes, PSTN-051 is a good resource for this information. There have been some updates in the range of weather conditions we consider – we extended our cloud and seeing records to cover a much wider range of years, and now consider simulations with a variety of start time to sample a wider range of historical weather. The average time per night is approximately the same, although we have also updated the downtime estimates for the first year of observing to account for a ramp-up in observing efficiency.

Another way to look at the expected conditions is to look at the simulated pointing histories, such as those released with the Phase 3 survey strategy recommendations, announced here - SCOC Phase 3 recommendation. These pointing histories include the expected conditions for a theoretical Rubin survey, with details for every simulated observation.