THE GLOBAL OSCILLATION NETWORK GROUP SITE SURVEY .1. DATA-COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS-METHODS

The Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) Project is planning to pla ce a set of instruments around the world to observe solar oscillations as continuously as possible for at last three years. The Project has now chosen the sites that will comprise the network. This paper descri bes the methods of data collection and analysis that were used to make this decision. Solar irradiance data were collected with a one-minute cadence at fifteen sites around the world and analyzed to produce sta tistics of cloud cover, atmospheric extinction, and transparency power spectra at the individual sites. Nearly 200 reasonable six-site netwo rks were assembled from the individual stations, and a set of statisti cal measures of the performance of the networks was analyzed using a p rincipal component analysis. An accompanying paper presents the result s of the survey.