Condition of Coronal Observation at Lijiang Observatory in 2011

The sky brightness is a critical parameter to estimate the coronal observation condition of a site. As part of the site survey project in Western China, we measure the sky brightness continuously at Lijiang Observatory in Yunnan province in 2011. A Sky Brightness Monitor (SBM) is adopted to measure the Sun's nearby sky brightness extending from 4.5 to 7.0 solar radii based on the experience of the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) site survey. Every month, the data are collected manually in one week at least. We carry on statistics of the sky brightness at four bandpasses located at 450, 530, 890, and 940 nm. The results indicate that the aerosol scattering is of great importance for diurnal variation of the sky brightness. In most of the year, the sky brightness maintains under 20 millionths per airmass before the local noon. On average, the sky brightness under 20 millionths accounts for 40.41 % of the total observing time in a clear day. The best observation time is from 9:00 to 13:00 (Beijing time). Lijiang Observatory is proper for coronagraphs investigating the structures and dynamics of the corona.