The statistics of the photometric accuracy based on MASS data and the evaluation of high-altitude wind

The effect of stellar scintillation on the accuracy of photometric measurements is analyzed. We obtain a convenient form of estimaton of this effect in the long exposure regime, when the turbulence shift produced by the wind is much larger than the aperture of the telescope. A simple method is proposed to determine index S3 introduced by Kenyon et al. (2006), directly from the measurements with the Multi Aperture Scintillation Sensor (MASS) without information on vertical profile of the wind. The statistics S3 resulting from our campaign of 2005–2007 at Maidanak observatory is presented. It is shown that these data can be used to estimate high-altitude winds at pressure level 70–100 mbar. Comparison with the wind speed retrieved from the NCEP/NCAR global models shows a good agreement. Some prospects for retrieval of the wind speed profile from the MASS measurements are outlined.