Geographic and seasonal influences on optical followup of gravitational wave events

Abstract

We investigate the effects of observatory locations on the probability of discovering optical/infrared counterparts of gravitational wave sources. We show that for the LIGO--Virgo network, the odds of discovering optical/infrared (OIR) counterparts show some latitude dependence, but weak or no longitudinal dependence. A stronger effect is seen to arise from the timing of LIGO/Virgo observing runs, with northern OIR observatories having better chances of finding the counterparts in northern winters. Assuming identical technical capabilities, the tentative mid-2017 three-detector network observing favors southern OIR observatories for discovery of EM counterparts.