The performance of ground based telescopes has historically been limited by the atmospheric conditions at the site.    These include the atmospheric turbulence that degrades the image quality and  the weather conditions that limit observations.   The Atmospheric Monitoring and Adaptive Optics group at SAAO attempts to deploy different technologies to monitor the characteristics of the Sutherland site and to improve the quality of ground based astronomical image.

This site includes information about current and ongoing projects related to site monitoring at SAAO.