Antarctic astronomy

Emeritus Professor John Storey

Image: John Storey

In a nutshell…

• It’s very cold

• It’s very dry

• The atmosphere is very stable

• Antarctica is the only place on earth set aside for science by international treaty

Image: Daniel Luong-van

Typical twilight spectra at Dome A and Paranal

Sims et al., 2012a

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are needed to see this picture.

Craig Kulesa, 2013

Ridge AMedian: 130 micronsBest 10%: 60 microns

Ridge A. Top to bottom: dry-air only, best 10 percentile, best 25 percentile, median winter transmission.

H2D+ [O III] [O I][C II][N II]

Sims et al., 2012

Deployment to Antarctica is one thousand times cheaper than space

($10/kg versus $10,000/kg)

Image: John Storey Image: ESA

Contour map of Antarctica

USGS imageMcMurdo

Contour map of Antarctica

USGS image

South Pole

The US Amundsen-Scott South Pole station…

Image: Michael Ashley

…with modern, well-equipped laboratories

Image: Michael Ashley

Image: Daniel Luong-Van

The South Pole Telescope (SPT)

The IceCube laboratory

Image: Michael Ashley

Contour map of Antarctica

USGS image

Dome C

Concordia is a French/Italian station operating year-round from 2005 at Dome C.

• Typically 12 ~ 16 people over winter• Astronomy is one of the key science drivers for the station

Image: John Storey

Absil et al, 2007

Modular sections built into shipping containers.

Image: Mark Swain

Antarctic Planet Interferometer phase 1 instrument concept

Contour map of Antarctica

USGS image

Dome F

Dome F, a Japanese station

Images: Hirofumi Okita

Iridium OpenPort

Image: Hirofumi Okita

Contour map of Antarctica

USGS image

Dome A

The Chinese have a major development program at Kunlun station, Dome A

Image: Zhu Zhenxi

Images: NIAOT

KDUST: 2.5 - 4 m optical/IR telecsope

Where is the driest site on earth?

Sims et al, 2012

AIRS/Aqua

MHS/NOAA-18

Both are median winter PWV

Contour map of Antarctica

USGS image

Ridge A

PLATO-R, a field deployable observatory

Image: Luke Bycroft

We built a new, international station at a place we called Ridge A.

Image: Craig Kulesa

Craig Kulesa, U. of Arizona

Image: FIRI team

Image: FIRI team

4 km baseline

SCAR AAA

Image: Craig Kulesa

Astronomy and Astrophysics from Antarctica

See our booth at the IAU meeting in Hawaii next week!