Accurate sky background modelling for ESO facilities

Full text: Ground-based measurements like e.g. high resolution spectroscopy are heavily influenced by several physical processes. Amongst others, line absorption/ emission, air glow by OH molecules, and scattering of photons within the earth's atmosphere make observations in particular from facilities like the future European extremely large telescope a challenge. Additionally, emission from unresolved extrasolar objects, the zodiacal light, the moon and even thermal emission from the telescope and the instrument contribute significantly to the broad band background over a wide wavelength range. In our talk we review these influences and give an overview on how they can be accurately modeled for increasing the overall precision of spectroscopic and imaging measurements. (author)