The dome seeing phenomenon began to attract serious attention in the mid-70s, when astronomers realized that observations made with new larger telescopes and improved optics did not achieve all the expected quality and resolution as the seeing generated at and by the telescope became more and more the limiting factor in image quality.
While the general cause of this dome seeing was immediately recognized in the thermal turbulence created by free and weakly mixed convection inside the dome, a realistic description and parameterization of the phenomenon was for a long time matter of conjectures, supported by very scarce experimental data.